He stopped trying to obtain happiness his way and found it by living God’s way.

I can imagine myself from early in recovery saying something like: “positive sobriety??? How about just sobriety?? I can’t even stay sober, and now you tell me I need positive sobriety!? What the heck is that!??”

Well, as I see it today, it means actually living out my Step Three decision on a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute basis. In Step Three, they tell us we have to quit playing God and make God our Director by turning our will and lives over to God’s care. The intended result of this is that I become God’s customer service agent in the world. I no longer walk around evaluating how everything is going and whether or not it is going my way (playing God), I am now walking around looking to see what role my new employer (love, good, God) might have for me. Who can I help here? What can I do to bring some of God’s love and light into this situation?

This attitude shift is summed up well in the last sentences of The Solution, which we read at most meetings:

We began practicing a positive sobriety, taking the actions of love to improve our relations with others. We were learning how to give; and the measure we gave was the measure we got back. We were finding what none of the substitutes had ever supplied. We were making the real Connection. We were home (SA 204–205).

I had to give up the delusional idea that I could get, achieve, and acquire my way to happiness. This gameplan for living was found wanting (literally) and never led to the experience of life that I was truly seeking. I was a wanting and problem machine, never experiencing lasting peace and freedom. The Steps (beginning with Step Three) opened the door to a new way of living that actually does work. It actually does lead to freedom, peace, love, joy, and harmony, and is the most wonderful life I have ever had! Thank you, God!