Step 3

Step 3 has collected a lot of criticism over the years, but the negative responses has to do often with one’s own connection to a “G-d Concept” rather than the step itself. Perhaps the originators of Step 3 should have used “infinite source” instead, but the message is equal. Step 3 becomes the first free willed decision the addicted undertakes after surrendering his or her free will to addiction. Step 3 must be seen in this context. It is in fact this step that launches the addict towards recovery.

“Like all the remaining Steps, Step Three calls for affirmative action, for it is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God – or, if you like a Higher Power – into our lives. Faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives. Therefore our problem now becomes just how and by what specific means shall we be able to let Him in? Step Three represents our first attempt to do this,” reads a quote from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

It is the entry of the infinite oneness and higher source that seems to pull addicts back from the edge of the darkness of addiction. Actually its the realization that the infinite oneness has always been there, which is the true, underlying message of Step 3.