When he acts in God’s will, the world is forever changed.

At the Mayflower Hotel, Bill feels the craving for a drink slowly rising in his mind. Without the slightest resistance, Bill gives in to the insane idea. He walks toward the hotel bar and orders a glass of gin—then another, and another. His allergy plays its final hand. A week later, Bill dies from alcohol poisoning.

In this world, no one calls Dr. Bob. He continues his attempts at recovery within the Oxford Group until the group dissolves and its influence fades away. He finds himself alone with his drink. His wife, Anne, divorces him; his children stop visiting, and he dies a lonely, miserable, alcoholic death.

After his latest relapse, Roy K. crawls out of his basement and opens the mailbox beside his door, and finds the April 22, 1974 issue of Time magazine. He opens the magazine, but he does not find the article titled “The New Alcoholism”—the article that was supposed to save his life—because Alcoholics Anonymous never existed. In a wave of deep despair, he heads to a brothel. Roy is never seen again.

Sexaholics Anonymous was never founded. Nor are any of the other fellowships. There is no Twelve-Step program. There is no hope for the hopeless. 

We know this did not happen; God had another plan. That simple moment when Bill decided to call another alcoholic to help him was a cosmic explosion—one that led to the creation of more than two hundred fellowships around the world, to me writing this message, and to you reading it.

A simple act of “getting out of self” created a lasting impact that will endure until the end of time. This is the power of the Program. Sometimes I belittle my choice of sobriety or the act of helping another person who is still suffering. But every time I choose God’s will, I return to that moment when Bill made that call. Something small… that changed the world forever.

Sometimes it’s worth asking myself: Where would I be today if the Twelve-Step program had never existed?