Commentary

We start with the understanding that our process of spiritual recovery is one of reclaiming ownership of a vital relationship that we have already. In this case, we are talking about recovering our conscious unity with God. We think of the woman in Jesus’ parable who had ten coins but lost one (Luke 15:8-10). She swept her house clean until she found it. We can think of these 12 steps of spiritual recovery as sweeping our own house, a sincere reexamination of our spiritual belief system, and regain our conscious union with God.

Though Jesus often used masculine pronouns when referring to God, he gave his best direct definition to Nicodemus: “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). He went on to explain that Spirit is like the wind we cannot see but whose effects in the swaying branches of a tree make it apparent.

When we think of Spirit, we do not think of a being. We think of Being, the omnipresence of the creative life force. Paul pointed out that it is within this Spirit that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). God as Spirit is the infinite ocean of life, love, power, and intelligence that is in all and through all. Like a sponge immersed in water, we are each immersed in God and God is immersed in us. Jesus explained this relationship of oneness very clearly. “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Our point of contact with God is within our own being. Though we may have falsely believed that we are separate from God, this never has been nor never can be true.

The story is told of a young student asking his teacher, Socrates, how to find wisdom. Socrates grabbed the youth by the back of the neck and held his head under water. The student flailed violently trying to escape. When Socrates lifted him from the water, he asked, “What did you want more than anything?” The student replied, “Air.” Socrates said, “When you want wisdom as much as you wanted air, you will find it.”

Though the woman in the parable momentarily lost sight of her 10^th coin, she knew it was hers and she made it her complete mission to recover it. So it is with us. We practice reminding ourselves daily that God as Spirit is the one presence and one power of good now active in our life. We make a habit of affirming the truth of this statement in all that we do.