When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crises  we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is or He isn’t. What was our choice to be? ~ World Service, Alcoholics Anonymous. The Big Book and A Study Guide of the 12 Steps (Kindle Locations 1043-1045). Anonymous Publishing. Kindle Edition.

What is most important in your life?
In Overeaters Anonymous you’ll hear,
“Abstinence is the most important
thing in my life without exception.”
Really? More important than our children,
our job, our home, car, computer, our integrity?
Yes, because if we don’t have abstinence
the rest will fall by the wayside.
Joe and Charlie on the A.A. speakers circuit
would use the Big Book quote above
and if something else seemed to take precedence,
they tagged that as the person’s higher Power.
What is most important in YOUR life?
In mine it seems a tie, that abstinence
and the God of my understanding rival each other,
as necessary as an oar on each side of a rowboat,
but truth be told, without surrender to my God,
abstinence will evaporate and disappear.
God either is God to us or he is powerless in our lives,
so, for me, God is not nothing, God is everything.