“Finally, when all our score cards read ‘zero’, and we saw that one more strike would put us out of the game forever, we had to look for our lost faith. It was in A.A. that we rediscovered it.” (Page 29, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions)
When I find myself with a problem yet refusing to go to God or reluctant about going to God, it is because I still believe I can find my own way out of my problems.
This is the case when I am thinking about my problems to generate a way forward, to acquire philosophical comfort, or to resolve some riddle.
When I find myself going to God or observe that I am single-minded in my going to God, it is because I’m in the position of ‘Mother Hubbard’ with the bare cupboard, I’m at the end of the line, the tank is empty, the last of the pie has been eaten, I got plenty o’ nuttin’, I ‘don’t got this’, the land is parched, and the hens have stopped laying. In other words, I go to God only as the last resort when every other option has been exhausted.
This is why one can’t help people who are not going to God or are resisting going to God. Such people are still working through their own arsenal of ‘tools’; they have Ideas and Thoughts and Beliefs and, worst of all, Convictions and Values. They’re still eating from their own imaginary box of chocolates. They’ve got Notions.
People who are out of ideas, thoughts, beliefs, convictions, and values can be helped, but the help consists in showing them the ropes of developing a relationship with God, not in directly helping them with their problems.