Episode Details

Chad arrived at his sponsor's door ready to skip straight to Step Four, but a coverless Big Book and the complete Twelve Steps showed him why sponsorship was not merely the icing on recovery - it was the cake.

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Chad shares how his first drink at seventeen made him comfortable in his own skin, then traces the progression from weekend drinking to alcohol in the shower, drinking before work, blackouts, DUIs, and the realization that willpower could not solve his problem. About thirty days sober and certain he would drink again without a solution, he finally asked the AA member who kept checking on him to become his sponsor. Chad arrived for their first session with pencil and paper, eager to begin Step Four, but his sponsor slowed him down and started at the beginning of the Big Book. In this practical walk through the Twelve Steps, Chad describes recognizing his powerlessness in the Doctor's Opinion, turning his fear over to God, inventorying the resentment he carried toward his father, sharing his secrets, and making direct amends. Somewhere in that process, the obsession to drink disappeared. The deepest surprise came with Step Twelve: after receiving a two-year token he never expected to earn, Chad found himself giving one to a man he sponsored and realized that carrying the AA message was not the icing on the cake. Sponsorship was the cake, the icing, and the whole deal.

Chad B. from Fairborn, OH speaking at the Trinity Lakeside Group in Dayton, OH - February 6th 2009

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu