I can vividly remember giving my will over to God. I was in AA and going through the 3rd Step, which is giving my will over to God as I understood him. There is a prayer our group would pray with the individual taking the 3rd step. It reads: “God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always!”

Something clicked when we were reading that prayer. It was a moment I realized that for the past several years I was doing my will, and not God’s. I was caught in a repetitive pattern of sin that I could not escape on my own. By publicly giving my will over to God in that moment, I felt I was ready to continue on my path of recovery from alcohol.

This was the first big shift in my faith once I stopped drinking. It was then that I knew I could not only stop drinking on my own, but I needed God. I finally realized I did not manage my life well. AA offered me help, suggestions, accountability, and a space to work through all of life’s crap without resorting back to alcohol. The program and fellowship provided me a foundation to grow, learn, and develop into a man. I needed this path to later on accept Jesus Christ as my savior. Now, Christ is my foundation, he is my Rock.

AA was with me through my early struggles with the non-denomination church. Through AA’s fellowship, mentoring, and suggestions it helped keep me on track. I would express my concern or worry about going to a non-Catholic church with my good friend in AA (who was also Catholic), and he just shrugged it off like “no big deal”. It gave me confidence to enter a church I was unfamiliar with. God worked through others to help me on my faith journey. It was a progression.

I don’t know if I’d be alive if I didn’t find that AA meeting on Tuesday night. I don’t know if I would have found Christ if I hadn’t taken the 3rd step. But, it’s not for me to know, I just know it’s all God’s Will.