Knowledge and power
THERE was a period when I was regularly asked to share about Step Eleven. I didn’t take that as a sign I might be an expert – more likely I needed to learn. Step Eleven had become important to me very early. I still have a vivid memory of someone using the phrase ‘conscious contact with God’. It sounded beautiful, serene and unlike anything I had heard before. God had always been harsh and punishing, and now I was hearing it in an entirely difference context.
I was so new to AA without drinking that I wasn’t fully aware that phrase was part of a Step – Step Eleven in fact. Although I’d been attending AA on and off for 18 months, I was drunk most of the time. Nothing was penetrating my thick skull. But when I stopped drinking, I was seeing and hearing everything differently. The use of the phrase ‘conscious contact with God’ spoken in a calm, quiet, gentle Scottish voice stays with me to this day.
Then, it was suggested that I read pages 86 to 88 of the Big Book every day, which I did, I quickly realised it was Step Eleven. It rounded off my day at night, then set me up for the day the following morning.
A long-term member explained to me Step Eleven in the simplest terms. “All you need to remember are two words,” he said, “Knowledge and power – knowledge of His will for you, and the power to carry that out.” That was a great help, breaking everything down into the simplest components. Those two words stay with me each day.
ANON
