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An Issue of Trust

Posted on May 19, 2026, tagged as

Again and again the recovery journey calls for willingness to change…. to try a different way. We had planned our route through life, ran off the road, crashed, and are now faced with a choice. We can keep trying the way we have been going, telling ourselves that we can do this if we are more careful. Or we can accept a rerouting as suggested by others. Our inclination is to be suspicious of trying another way, especially if we haven’t thought of it first. 

We don’t believe those people who are talking to us will understand just who we are or just what we need or want. Of course, this might be true, as far as it goes. The decision we are confronted with is whether we are going to be trusting enough to try another way. Doctor Bob Smith, a cofounder of AA, said that recovery is a three-step process. “Trust God, clean house, and help others.” Trust God incorporates AA steps 1-3, clean house deals with steps 4-11, and helping others is the essence of step twelve. 

But many will ask, why should I trust God? They think they have evidence from their own lives, having prayed and not gotten what they asked for, that God is not listening, not caring, or worse. They look at the world and see suffering and mayhem. They may have given up any belief in God. How can such a person even get started on the recovery journey when confronted with such a roadblock? 

AA was founded by people who believed in God. Early on they were joined by agnostics and atheists. There was a prolonged dialogue between the God-believing people and those who could not accept the idea of God. Over time they developed language to accommodate almost everyone, by referring to “God as you understand Him.” It’s not perfect but it works for most people who try it. The other critical piece here is one of seeking a higher power. The actual action verb is seeking, not finding. If we are open enough to seek a higher power, however we go about it, that has proven to be enough.

Some of our sponsors have told us that we had to believe in God. This may have been true for them, but not necessarily for us. What we had to believe is that we were not God. We lack such power and lack all the answers.

My suggestion here is not to worry about who or what God might be, but rather, if you can’t believe in God to try thinking of the higher power as a process of recovery, as guided by the twelve steps and by the people we meet in the meetings. By trusting a process instead of a God of dubious existence or power, we can detour around this area where the road has washed out and use the prescribed pathway of recovery. We don’t even have to trust the process entirely. What we might have to do is just hope that it works and then make the effort. As we stay sober or release much of our anger, resentments, and self-pity, our trust in the process grows. We discover that not only are we sober but we feel better and have times of joyfulness. It really will work for us as it has for countless others.