Something heard in too many meetings and in the fellowship:  “Don’t think too much,” “Don’t think–you’ll get into trouble,” or “Don’t think–you might get drunk.” Newcomers/ beginners do need guidance because they still have that ‘alcoholic thinking.’  But as their guides or sponsors, we must help them learn to think WELL—so they can begin asking God to direct their thinking, and to become dependent on infinite God—not their finite self, and certainly NOT their sponsor. Anyone with over 3 years of continuous sobriety should be practicing independent thinking! How are you taking your daily self-inventory, quiet time readings, studying AA literature, and remaining teachable, etc. if you don’t dare to think yet? And who are you depending on to do your thinking for you?

PRACTICING A SIMPLE PROGRAM DOESN’T MEAN WE AVOID THINKING

Even the slogan, ‘Keep It Simple’ (which is not in the Big Book) seems to have become a permanent cop-out for laziness and fear of change. The implication being that if you dare to think, you’re ‘complicating’ or ‘intellectualizing’ the program, and you’re ‘arrogant’ if you dare to share the strong message (dry drunks can get very defensive and nasty when their program is challenged). 

BS. We DO have, and should maintain, a “simple program” (BB pg 58); it is “Simple, but not easy…” (BB pg 14); we have a “simple kit of spiritual tools” (BB pg 25), “simple steps” (BB pg 46), “simple requirements” (BB pg 50), “simple rules” (BB pg xxix); “the simple way we have just outlined.” (BB pg 88); “do certain simple things” (BB pg 50); and “simple reliance upon…” (BB pg. 52).  In Dr Bob’s last message, he mentioned hanging on to “the simplicity of our Program.” He also reminded us that our 12 Steps are simply about “love and service.”

Keeping it Simple does NOT mean we are to use ‘simplistic thinking’ and sit back and let life happen to us—that’s a taking half-measures and working YOUR program, not The Program. It will avail you NOTHING. When a sober-only oldtimer designs their own program and tries to pass it off as A.A. –well that’s arrogance and complicating The Program. If someone has 15+ years of ‘just sobriety’ and are just ‘recovering;’ simply ‘a member of AA;’ if they claim they still have alcoholic ‘stinkin thinkin,’ are still ‘sick’ (don’t believe God has restored them to sanity yet), only practice the principles in a few convenient areas of their life, and have little desire to hear or learn the truth… well God bless them, but they just may be a DRY DRUNK.

THINK, THINK, THINK

This popular slogan (which is not in the Big Book) was never intended to mean, “think the drink through.” That’s another cliche scattered by treatment centers. There is a large group of people who can think the drink through—these people are called “non-alcoholics.”  If drunks were able to reliably think the drink through, they’d never need the Steps or spiritual experience, only a desire to stop drinking. The original meaning is not certain; some say the slogan originated in Cleveland, Ohio in the mid-1940s, however, its actual source is unknown. So why not take it for what is says? We are encouraged and expected to THINK, THINK, THINK… exercise that brain God gave you to use!

THE SOLUTION:

Our A.A. textbook makes it clear that we are expected to use our new, recovered thinking on a daily basis, asking God for guidance—our daily, personal work is necessary for survival and growth. But in addition, the good old-timers regularly studied together and encouraged special group work—small, study and fellowship groups where rigorous honesty, openness, and responsibility is pursued and practiced on a regular basis. They read and discussed books and literature from others who have sought and experienced conscious contact with God.

They had three qualifications for people who are searching for REAL answers: You must try to be HONEST. You must be WILLING TO LEARN. You must WORK HARD. Then find and associate with a group of people who are actually doing this, and get involved with them. These are the people we check our decisions with, who encourage us, help us stay accountable on our personal journey with God, who we bounce ideas off of, help us stay focused on our priorities, and stay on track to our goals (our checks and balances). This group, when you can actually find a healthy one, can replace the original sponsor who first guided you through the Steps.
If you don’t read and study, if you just parrot the rhetoric your sponsor’s sponsor’s sponsor says, and you stay in your Stinkin Thinkin, then what the heck kind of a message are you carrying to the newcomer? …and to someone you’re trying to guide through the Steps? PLEASE–we have an obligation to carry THE message to the people who are honestly looking for a genuine solution to their problem. You cannot transmit something that YOU don’t even have yet.

THINKING QUOTES from the Big Book:

page 13: “I was to test my thinking by the new God-consciousness within.”
page 41: “As soon as I regained my ability to think, I went carefully over that evening in Washington.”
page 53: “It is not by chance we were given the power to reason, to examine the evidence of our senses, and to draw conclusions. (that’s ALL about thinking).”
page 60: “Being convinced, we were at Step Three, which is that we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood Him.”
page 64: “It is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade.”
page 86: “On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. In thinking about our day, we may face indecision.… When we retire at night, we constructively review our day.”
page 87: “What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. …Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely on it.”
page 100: “When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God’s hands were better than anything we could have planned.”
page 70: “We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people.”
page 74: “Rightly and naturally, we think well before we choose the person or persons with whom to take this intimate and confidential step.”
page 76: “We subjected ourselves to a drastic self-appraisal.”
page 50: “They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking.”
page 55: “If our testimony helps sweep away prejudice, enables you to think honestly, encourages you to search diligently within yourself, then, if you wish, you can join us on the Broad Highway.”
page 104: “We want to analyze mistakes we have made.”
page 83: “We ought to sit down with the family and frankly analyze the past as we now see it, being very careful not to criticize them.”
page 134: “This may hang on for months, long after their mother has accepted dad‘s new way of living and thinking.”
page 83: “We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.”

THINKING QUOTES From the 12 and 12:

page 54: “It will be an aid to clear thinking and honest appraisal.”
page 34: “We saw that we were powerless over alcohol, but we also perceived that faith of some kind, if only in A.A. itself, is possible to anyone.”
page 102: “Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is.”
page 52: “To take inventory in this respect we ought to consider carefully all personal relationships which bring continuous or recurring trouble.”
page 70: “Since this Step so specifically concerns itself with humility, we should pause here to consider what humility is and what the practice of it can mean to us.”
page 77: “First, we take a look backward and try to discover where we have been at fault;…”   “…and third, having thus cleaned away the debris of the past, we consider how, with our newfound knowledge of ourselves, we may develop the best possible relations with every human being we know.”
page 48: “Human beings are never quite alike, so each of us, when making an inventory, will need to determine what his individual character defects are.”
page 52: “But all alcoholics who have drunk themselves out of jobs, family, and friends will need to cross-examine themselves ruthlessly to determine how their own personality defects have thus demolished their security.”
page 81: “We should, of course, ponder and weigh each instance carefully.”
page 88: “A continuous look at our assets and liabilities, and a real desire to learn and grow by this means, are necessities for us.”       “… no one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, …”
page 89: “The emphasis on inventory is heavy only because a great many of us have never really acquired the habit of accurate self-appraisal.”      “Then there are those occasions when alone, or in the company of our sponsor or spiritual adviser, we make a careful review of our progress since the last time.”
page 91: “When we are tempted by the bait, we should train ourselves to step back and think. “
page 94: “As we glance down the debit side of the day’s ledger, we should carefully examine our motives in each thought or act that appears to be wrong.”
page 102: “In the morning we think of the hours to come.”

QUOTES FROM OTHERS:

–M. Scott Peck says,
“Thinking is difficult. Thinking is complex. Thinking is a process. Many people show little interest in contemplation.
“Thinking too little is your problem. Many people run from the change necessary for growth. They aren’t willing to face the task of reformulating some of the assumptions and illusions they have accepted as truth. …We have to live with some illusions but the problem comes when our illusions consistently interfere with growth. …many people avoid the pain of suffering and problems… if we avoid suffering, we avoid growth.”
“Thinking too much is somebody else’s problem. Although often we do damage to ourselves through simplistic thinking, there are other times when people may seek to damage us for daring to think well.  If we think a great deal and others don’t particularly like it, that is their problem, not ours. If you use your brain, it’s bound to create a problem for others if they are seeking to use, abuse, control you, or keep you dependent or fearful. … If we choose to think for ourselves, we risk being seen as eccentrics or malcontents.  …It can take a lifetime for many people to come to terms with the freedom they truly have to think for themselves… it is a choice.

—Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In acknowledging our freedom to think we need always to remain aware that we can make both wrong and right choices. …with the freedom to think and feel anything also comes the responsibility to discipline our thoughts and feelings.”

“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”

—James Allen: “As a Man Thinketh”
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. …The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns by both suffering and bliss.
A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate of circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power.
Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations. And man, therefore, as the Lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment.”

ETC—a recovered (but not cured) alcoholic in Oregon