12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Completing the first nine steps achieves nothing. It clears away but it does not build. It consists in demolition and removal of refuse. It's the acquisition of the gym pass: it does not make you fit or strong.
Step Twelve proper starts with the completion of Step Nine. Steps Ten and Eleven are supports for Step Twelve. The first nine steps are the preliminaries; Step Twelve is the thing itself, and the only thing.
There are many traps in Step Twelve. It has three parts, and each part must be understood, implemented, and woven together with the others.
The spiritual awakening element holds the least dangers: spending one's life trying to establish a relationship with God as literally the most significant feature of one's life will necessary entail waking up to the other parts of Step Twelve, sooner or later. It's rare for people to get entirely lost in this, because good spiritual advisors outside AA will invariably point the individual back to the main locus of their service of God within AA, and the fever abates. The only real danger lies in esoteric forms of religion or in religions or spiritual practices that do not recognise the relationship of subordination to God. I can't see a theoretical problem with godless religions, but in practice individuals will sometimes be unable to oust themselves from the throne without the deliberate act of recognising the throne as rightfully belonging to God.
The second trap lies in devoting one's life to service. The problem lies not in this, per se, but in doing so on one's own efforts, without an active, more-than-theoretical relationship with God. The people one is serving become irritating; the work becomes drudge; it is not imbued with the spirit of God; even if it is kept up, it will be largely joyless. But more often than not it will gradually be side-lined and dwindle to a perfunctory compliance.
The greatest of the three traps lies in the third element: practising these principles in all our affairs. The trap lies in continuing with outward, wooden, desultory spiritual observances and lacklustre, minimal, formulaic service, whilst reserving one's passions and real efforts for the 'affairs'.
Note that the third part of Step Twelve is not have affairs. It is not: get a family, acquire qualifications, get a career, do well, achieve material security, develop a broad social circle, excel at hobbies and interests. The fameux 'I've got a big life' brigade are the perfect exemplar of this. These trophies are vaunted as demonstrations that the programme works. But these are the trophies of material victories and by no means the preserve of the spiritual or the step-worker: often the reverse is the case. Career, in particular, is usually at the cost of God and service.
The third part of Step Twelve is the development of character and the practise of virtues. The domain is the broad ocean of affairs. But the affairs themselves are not the point. They're the packaging required for delivery of the goods. They're not the gift. Becoming absorbed in and preoccupied with these things in themselves is like the moggie that is more interested in the cardboard box than in the feline climbing frame or plushie cat-house supplied in the box.
An example: the three virtues du jour might be patience, tolerance, and thoughtfulness. This could be achieved sweeping the streets or at the board table. The person at the board table is not doing better than the streetsweeper per se. The employed person with an illustrious career is not doing better than the unemployed person who is volunteering at a soup kitchen per se. The person with a large family is not doing better than the single person per se. The person who is doing the better is the person who is developing their character and practising virtues more assiduously. Service of God does not require importance. What is big in God's eyes is not what is big in man's eyes.
In the Bible, it says, 'But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,' and this sums up the above ideas. Continue for a lifetime with the development of the right relationship with God, and everything else will follow. Subordinate that to anything else, and the vine will slowly wither. The vine will wither so slowly, however, that, by the time the fruit start to wither, the roots are long dead. What happens next? Relapse, after ten, twenty, or thirty years of apparently fruitful recovery.
What's the answer? Seek a relationship with God and nothing else, then everything else will be built around the relationship, by God, not by me.