The other day I was doing the "step twelve" lecture in my drug treatment facility and was pondering the "Having had a spiritual awakening" part of step twelve. What is that spiritual awakening that it is talking about? How do you get it? What happens when you do? What does it look like?

So the next day I asked the patient group what that was and they came up with so many responses, all valid, but varied too. The twelve steps are designed to get you to have that experience so looking at the previous eleven steps may help us to see how to get one and what it might look like in our recovery.

Steps one through three get us started toward the spiritual experience. When you can come to the place where you realize you are powerless, you begin to look at your addiction with eyes wide open. Let's face it, when we can accept our powerlessness we take the blinders off, right? We become willing to see that something has taken control of our lives and we don't have an answer for it. Our consequences cause us to seek help from a power source greater, not only than us, but greater than our disease. The second and third steps move us out of ourselves to a power greater. Is that the spiritual experience? My first response may be yes but hang on, not so fast. Let's not jump from step one to twelve too quickly. We still have eight more to go.

Moving out of ourselves to a greater power is a spiritual step and opens us to greater realities and experiences. Consider what has to happen in just the first three steps. Previously we were living life on our terms. Life was all about us and there was nothing but our addiction that mattered. For us to see otherwise is a miracle in itself. But that is just the beginning. As we associate with that power that is greater than ourselves our values begin to change. Our ideas about life, that once governed and fed our addiction, begin to be challenged. We see the world in a new light and, guided by spiritual principles, we begin to change.

The fourth and fifth step causes us to continue with a thorough moral inventory that opens our eyes even more. We take a serious look at ourselves and realize just how much we need to continue to change. The sixth and seventh step continues the introspection. Daily we look and see that our defects are a hindrance to our continued growth and we are in a place where we are asking for our higher power to change us. We realize we need to change because there are others whom we have affected and their welfare becomes important now.

As we continue working the steps of making amends and staying in touch with our higher power the value shift happens. Our gaze becomes outward and not inward, we see that life and the world have so much more to it than our myopic view used to give us. We stop making the world about us and begin to live closer the God of our understanding, our families and with our sober network. New opportunities present themselves and we get connected with life again or perhaps for the first time.

Notice that the steps challenge us to start with us first. Perhaps the spiritual awakening is that part where we become so familiar with ourselves that we begin the work of letting God change us, which in turn, spurs our growth. Having had that spiritual experience "as a result of these steps" begins with us. So how is it going? Have the first three caused you to reach out to that Power that is greater than you and your disease? Have you caught a glimpse of what that new world looks like? Have you done the hard work of identifying what changes need to be made in your life through steps five through seven? Have you found those spiritual principles to live by and ordered your life to conform to those?

The conscious contact with God and maintaining that relationship is vital to the spiritual awakening. What is the vision your Higher Power has given you? Haven't gotten it yet? If not, keep asking for it.

Dr. Bob and Bill W. had that kind of an experience that changed the lives of many people. Both realized that with their own sobriety, they could help others. Their spiritual awakening moved them to create a fellowship that has changed millions of lives. Perhaps yours is not the same but it's just as real. Maybe it is to be a good sponsor to start with. I'm a firm believer that when we get ourselves out of God's way we will come face to face with that vision. We will then know what our place in life is. My challenge to you is to work the steps faithfully so that you can have that spiritual awakening "as a result of these steps". You are promised one and you will get one if you faithfully work them daily.

Chaplain, Ken Davila, M.Div, BA