We can all relate to the experience of St. Paul that we possess an inborn limitation that inhibits our ability to do what we know we should do. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. A friend who was very active in AA once said the issue was not one of will power. He had plenty of will power when it came to begging, borrowing or stealing a drink. It is, as St. Paul puts it in the “doing” what he knew he should do. He eventually discovered, as St. Paul describes, that he couldn’t do it on his own. It was only a higher power, the grace of Christ, that enabled him to do what he knew he needed to do. The wisdom of twelve step spirituality we should all take to heart — we cannot lift ourselves by our bootstraps and become the kind of person we want to be, compassionate, forgiving, generous. It is God’s gift in the likes of us that will transform the things we do.
