Page 14 - AA NEWS JANUARY 2019

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RELATION OF HUMILITY TO SOBRIETY
The New Oxford American Dictionary and Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus provide these definitions and synonyms:
HUMILITY: A modest or low view of one’s importance; modesty, humbleness, meekness, diffidence, unassertiveness, lack of pride, lack of vanity, servility, submissiveness.
SOBRIETY: The quality of being staid or solemn; soberness, clear-headedness, abstinence, teetotalism, non-indulgence, temperance, abstemiousness.
For our purposes, alcoholics would be wise to embrace a definition of humility that might go something like this: HUMILITY—An awareness and acceptance of one’s own character defects, and a willingness to do something about them.
Genuine humility is rooted in the kind of truth that perpetuates itself and is bolstered by open mindedness and willingness. Both sobriety and humility serve to support each other to give alcoholics who are committed to continuous sobriety a measure of inner peace that can continue for a lifetime, no matter what challenges are faced throughout their lives. In order to practice the first step perfectly, we must be completely honest about what happens to us when we drink. “Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built. ...little good can come to any alcoholic who joins A.A. Unless he has first accepted his devastating weakness and all its consequences. Until he humbles himself, his sobriety—if any— will be precarious.” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 21).
When we stop drinking alcohol, and want to stay that way, we seek guidance from a sponsor or others who are experienced in working the twelve steps and have learned to apply the principles of the steps in their daily living; we want what they’ve got. The brand of sobriety that attracts us is a direct result of development of the habit of rigorous self-honesty. Sobriety, for the purposes of this essay, must be the kind that comes from complete surrender to the full range of principles contained in the twelve steps(e.g., honesty, hope, faith, courage, integrity, willingness, humility, brotherly love, judgment, perseverance, awareness, service), as opposed to the kind of soberness that happens sporadically, through swearing off or going to rehab, but isinevitablyfollowedbymoredrinking and more dishonesty. When we surrender to the program contained in the twelve steps, we begin the journey toward humility, and the payoff is inner peace rather than anxiety, hopefulness rather than a sense of impending doom. Sobriety is no longer drudgery and we can face life with a happy heart.
Once we have carefully taken the first three steps, the process of self-inventory becomes the beginning of a life-long process of taking an honest and in-depth look at ourselves, something we never would have done while we were still drinking. Some of us tried in vain with many self-help books, but we never made much progress because we couldn’t carry out the necessary tasks if we had any traces of alcohol in our bodies or clung to any lingering hope that we might ever safely return to drinking alcohol. A.A.’s Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions book provided a lot of help with our task because it expands on how to go about it, with humility as our guide and goal.
Continued on Page 15.