A recent issue of the AA magazine Grapevine drew my attention when I read something close to “Coincidence is God’s way of staying amazing.” After seeing that I remembered, “Half measures availed us nothing…. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.”

Often I remind others (in order to remind myself) that the real problem with “half measures” is a double loss: not only do we not get results from a half measure, we also think that we’ve done something useful when, in fact, we have not. Thus we may think this program does not work. We lose twice!

When I do half measures, I push God out of the picture and find myself in a cold, confused panic. This leads to my personal theory of God: that He is a hopeless neurotic who will go to any length to get my attention. So I might as well give Him the attention and credit, since He’s going to get it anyway. That my theory of God reminds me of my own self-centeredness does not escape me. The net effect of half measures is to return my attention to God, which is good.

Through my actions in sobriety and recovery and helping other sexaholics, I get the benefits of this program. In doing so, I give God the attention and credit. And I keep my attention and gratitude focused on God’s gifts to me. This is truly the easier, softer way.