Some time ago I found an unusual black box in the dashboard of my car. It was a SatNav (also known as a GPS) with the initials GOD printed on it. I didn’t program this SatNav, and I do not know the destination. God did that.

In Step Three, I made a decision to hand my will and my life over to the care of God. When I am driving and following the SatNav’s directions, it is still me driving the car. Every time the SatNav gives me an instruction, I have to make the conscious decision to follow it or not. It is still my car (life); I am responsible. The SatNav (God) is only guiding me. I believe this SatNav was in my car all my life. I just chose to ignore it; or, if it did not guide me where I thought I wanted to be, I pretended it wasn’t there. God was guiding me all my life, but I ignored him out of self-will. I was driving around with no direction. To understand that I had to do Step One. My self-will does not work, and I had no direction, which is the same as unmanageability.

In Step Two, I finally saw that the SatNav is there. I can choose to follow its directions to see where my life is intended to go. In Step Three I made that choice.

As usual with SatNavs, I can only see a small part of the map. I only see where it intends to guide me for the next several miles, but not to the final destination. Sometimes it guides me to areas I don’t feel comfortable to go, and I hesitate. If I choose to ignore the direction given and go a different way, I know the SatNav is just going to calculate a new route. It will remain pointing me to the destination where I eventually have to go, or I will run out of gas. So I might as well trust it and perhaps even drive through a bad neighborhood, such as my deepest inner-self with all my dark secrets (e.g. Steps Four, Eight and Nine). Eventually, I get through it to the other end.

Modern cars are getting close to the ability to drive themselves. My car will never do that. God is not going to drive my car. I will always have to drive myself. Today my car has lots of assistants. I got a new gear box in form of the Steps, and I switch through them as I go. I have a sponsor who is my driving instructor. He is only giving me direction and advice. I am responsible for the car and have to make conscious decisions. I have sensors and brighter headlights through the SA Fellowship. Sharing and connecting with others makes it safer and prevents a crash. And, meetings are my gas stations.

This way I hope to go many more miles and arrive relaxed at my destination wherever God’s Will intends me to be.