The Decision to Stop Playing Higher Power – Risa M.

About This Speaker Tape

Grace Group Zoom Series - 2023

Risa M. maps out the internal machinery of the Third Step moving from a rigid atheist resistance to a daily necessity. She dismantles the 'toolkit of self-will,' describing how she attempted to direct the lives of her husband and children like a stage manager overseeing a play only to find herself 'dry and crusty' at 16 years sober. Through a concrete example of a ruined family dinner over a chicken recipe she illustrates the delusion that happiness can be forcibly pulled from the world through management. Risa M. traces her evolution from seeing the Third Step as a one-time event to recognizing it as a daily decision to stop playing Higher Power and instead act as an agent for a Higher Power ensuring she doesn't land on the toes of others in her 'rowboat' of self-propulsion.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Risa M. introduces herself and mentions her home group, the PPG Webster Meeting.
• 3:15 Discussion of the 'three pertinent ideas' and the physical allergy of alcoholism.
• 7:40 Laughter: Risa M. recounts her early resistance to a Higher Power and her sponsor's challenge to believe she isn't Higher Power.
• 11:20 Risa M. describes the state of being 'dry and crusty' at 16 years sober.
• 15:30 Analysis of the 'actor' metaphor from the Big Book regarding self-propulsion and managing others.
• 18:45 The 'toolkit of self-will' and the flip-flop between being virtuous and mean to get results.
• 22:10 Detailed story about the family dinner and the 'chicken recipe' that led to a spiritual crash.
• 26:40 Risa M. discusses the decision to let a Higher Power be the Director of the drama of life.
• 29:10 Closing remarks and the reading of the 'Vision for You' from the Big Book.
• 30:15 The meeting closes with the Lord's Prayer.