Alcoholics Anonymous had its beginnings in Akron in 1935 when a New Yorker on business there and successfully sober for the first time in years sought out another alcoholic. During his few months of sobriety, the New Yorker had noticed that his desire to drink lessened when he tried to help other drunks to get sober. In Akron, he was directed to a local doctor with a drinking problem. Working together, the businessman and the doctor found that their ability to stay sober seemed closely related to the amount of help and encouragement they were able to give other alcoholics. (source - scroll down a little)

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over _________ - that our lives had become unmanageable.

You fill in the blank.

There are a lot of things I'm powerless over in my life. The presenting issue for me right now is overeating. You wouldn't know it to look at me. I'm still in range for my height. But I've never been this heavy before, and I hate it. I often say that my vanity and my gluttony are locked in mortal combat. The answer isn't to 'feed' my vanity. There must be a better way. (cf Overeaters Anonymous. Do you eat compulsively? Ask yourself their 15 Questions.)

This food thing is symptomatic, though. I eat because I feel I need the energy or the comfort to make it through the day. I'm pretty weak, psychologically. Sometimes I eat as a reward for doing the right thing or properly discharging my responsibilities.

Jesus and Paul teach that God can help us with these things. I believe He can. But I don't have it, yet. There's more to be drawn from God - more life, more comfort, more love, more energy, more power, more peace, more joy. I want it. And until I get it, I'm going to struggle in some areas I hate to struggle in.

I'd probably get laughed out of an AA meeting if I went. But I'm out of control, too. I have been for my 20 sentient years. I need help.

I'm like Paul in Romans 7.14-25. I can't do the good things I want to do. And I do the bad things I don't want to do. Not criminal things. Heck, not even immoral things to most people. But they're way below my values. And I don't think I've set my standards too high.

See, Paul wrote Romans 7 to describe life before Christ. Romans 8, and the rest of Paul's writing, is life with Christ. With Christ we can do the right thing. We can do the good things we feel called to. We can abstain from the bad things we know we shouldn't do, that we don't even want to do, on one level.

And I want to get to that place. I'm sick and tired of falling short of what God calls me to. That's the bottom line. I've 'bottomed out', so to speak, on falling short. Willpower is not the answer. God's grace and power are the answer. I need to appropriate them, and I'm really bad at it.

So, for today, this is my attempt to help other people get sane, by sharing my stuff.

If this resonates with you and you want to talk, drop me a line.