"Now when I got to AA, I had that attitude of a 12-year-old boy who had defied God, his parents and his teachers. When I first walked
into AA I was 38 years old with the spiritual knowledge of God of that 12 year old boy. No wonder we have trouble with this God
thing when we get to AA. Anybody else ever have those kinds of feelings about God and people?" - Joe & Charlie Big Book Experience
Some of us had no idea what agnostic meant before AA. We heard it and assumed it meant atheist, anti-God, or someone we couldn’t relate to. If this thing was going to turn into church, we were already halfway to the door.
Many of us carried old ideas about spirituality — some from confusing experiences, some from avoidance, some from thinking we were too smart to need it. Either way, the idea itself felt like a wall.
When Joe & Charlie walked so many of us through it in plain language, it landed differently. No theology. No pressure. Just the possibility that willingness mattered more than certainty.
We didn’t become believers overnight. We just stopped feeding the assumptions long enough to let the door crack open.
What changed when you stopped arguing with the idea of a Higher Power and simply stayed open to the possibility?
