Tom here, alcoholic from Baltimore.

My spirit "awakened" when I stopped putting it to sleep with booze. It took me a while, but in the past 16-plus years of sobriety, I have learned that this is not a "spiritual" program; people are spiritual. The Twelve Steps simply show us how to use what God has already given us. I have a friend who is pastor at our local church. I went to him not long ago looking for a place to start a new AA meeting. He told me something that surprised me. He said he was a bit jealous of AA. I asked why? He said his congregation was full of people with obvious problems in their relationship with God, but folks in AA seem to make it look so easy! I laughed! He asked, "What's your secret?" I replied, "The secret is there is no secret. You try to get people straight to God without removing what's been blocking them. AA has found a way to remove all obstacles that stand in the way of a working relationship with Him. AA was never designed to get anyone sober, it was designed to help us recover from the disease of alcoholism. That means having our spirit reunited with the One who gave it to us." When I did my Third Step, my sponsor said, "Instead of turning your life over to the care of God, why don't you just return it? It isn't really yours anyway ... He gave it to you, you screwed it up ... now give it back." He made it sound possible, and I've been living in the amazing results of that ever since. It's a life beyond anything I could have possibly imagined.