Giving the Program Literature Authority in My Life

Dear ESSAY,

Recently my sponsor encouraged me to give program literature more authority in my life. He meant, take the literature as my personal truth and don’t divert from it—this is how I will get maximum benefit from this Program of recovery.

Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power?

Well, that’s exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem. (AA, 45)

Restated, the purpose of the Big Book is to find a Power greater than ourselves through Whom we can solve our problem. Clear and simple.

The book has had 85 years of prodigious results across many countries in the world.

My present resolve is not only to read and accept the ideas contained in our SA Fellowship-approved literature, but to go a step further and give these ideas authority to guide my thinking, choices, and perspective on life.