Higher Power

What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Habakkuk 2:18

Step two of the Twelve Steps states that as addicts, we must come to believe that only a power greater than us can save us from ourselves. Step three goes on to define that higher power as God and insists that we surrender our will to him.

This is of profound importance for addicts whose greatest problem is not simply drugs, but rather that we follow ourselves above all. In our addictions, whatever appetite it is that we’re enslaved to becomes the god or idol of our own creation. In our addictions, we follow ourselves to disaster, so in our recovery, we require something greater than ourselves. The Twelve Steps insist that the only adequate solution is God.

For me, belief was never a problem. I’ve always believed. I’ve just had difficulty with surrendering my will and changing my behavior. I’ve claimed belief in a God, while following my own will as god. I professed faith while obeying the idol of my own appetite.

For others, simply believing in a higher power is difficult. There are those then, who will insist that the addict may choose his own god. Your god can be whatever you desire. It can be that doorknob if you want.

In today’s passage, Habakkuk points out the absurdity of following the gods of our own making. Whether I follow my will, or I follow a doorknob, I’m still following an idol of my own creation, which is what led me to disaster in the first place. To truly recover, I must accept this truth: I am the problem and I cannot do this on my own.

It is certainly possible to stop drinking without believing in God. Habakkuk insists though, that the one who refuses to follow God, is still simply following a path of his own making, which is not truly recovery, since the addict’s primary problem is that he follows his own will above all.

If we truly want to know life, recovery, and faith, we must believe in God and we must surrender our path for his, which is infinitely higher than our own.