“Once we have admitted our helplessness—and our inability to manage our lives” (ODAT, 2 February)
It is important that the unmanageability of one’s life, as suggested by the first step, is not a description of my life but of my life as a consequence of my inability to manage it. The problem lies not in my life but in me. This is made clear by the references to unmanageability in the original text (the book Alcoholics Anonymous) that set out the concept of unmanageability for the first time.
So, I cannot manage my life. Why not?
If there is an alcoholic in it, doing what alcoholics do, they will affect the circumstances, and, because I am powerless over that behaviour, I’m powerless over the consequences: I am not in charge.
There is a deeper level: Without a programme and the God whose power is unlocked by the programme, I am powerless to stop believing, thinking, and doing what does not work and to start believing, thinking, and doing what does, and thus I do not have control over myself or my life: I am locked into patterns, and the patterns are thus dictating my life.
The reference to unmanageability is not a description of messy circumstances or situations but a reference to a fundamental lack of ability on my part.
If the steering wheel is locked, the gears don’t work, the brakes don’t work, and the handbrake does not work, I am powerless over the car and thus its course is unmanageable.
If I am powerless—without God’s help—over my beliefs, thinking, and behaviour, I cannot manage the course of my life.