HAVING HAD A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING: BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN GIVEN MUCH, I TOO MUST GIVE

In 1934, a man people know as Bill W. entered the offices of Dr. Bob, seeking help.  He was an alcoholic who had destroyed his career, his family, and his life.  He'd tried on his own for years.  He finally realized that he would never become sober on his own.  He needed help.

As he worked his own recovery, Bill - with the help of Dr. Bob - began to codify the process that seemed to be working for him.  Those 12-Steps led to Bill's sobriety and to the founding of a spiritually based self-help program that we know as Alcoholics Anonymous.

Since then, many treatment programs have arisen using those original steps.  They have been used to address other addictions, such as drugs, gambling, and pornography.  The Addiction Recovery Program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses a 12-Step model. It differs in that, in AA, the spiritual helper is addressed as a higher power or God, as you understand him. In the ARP program, that higher power is specific: Jesus Christ.

When Alma the Younger spent those three days in torment following the angel's visit, it was like a horrendous crash course in Repentance 101.  To me, that is what the 12-steps are all about: repentance. 

Here are the steps:

1. Recognize that my life is out of control; I am powerless
2. Believe that there is a power in the universe greater than I
3. Turn control of my life over to God
4. Take a fearless and honest moral inventory of sins
5. Admit to God, myself, and one other person the exact nature of my sins.
6. Be ready to have God help me overcome my sins and change my life
7. Ask God to remove my shortcomings
8. Make a list of people I have hurt
9. Make direct amends when I can; be willing to make amends to everyone
10. Conduct an ongoing personal inventory; when I find sin, acknowledge it
11. Continue to make improvements and learn from my mistakes
12. Having had a spiritual awakening, I will share it with others.

Most of us won't be called to repentance by an angel as was Alma. But as I read the most complete account of Alma's experience, I recognize elements of this process in his experience.  It wasn't the angel that converted Alma: it was the pain and weight of his sins that finally drove him to reach out to Christ. If you read this account in Alma, chapter 36, you will note that it is a complete chiasmus*.  There are a series of statements listed, then the most important part of the testimony, followed by a review of the original statements in reverse order. 

Which verses were the key concept being taught? Verses 17 and 18:

I remembered Jesus Christ, son of God

I cried, "Jesus Christ, son of God."

It was then that things turned around for Alma. For 16 verses, he has confessed his sins and suffered torment for them.  In the last 16 verses, he is released from his toment, finds forgiveness for his sins, and finds a blue print for his future: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was certainly the case with Alma, but he didn't bask in his joy. He reached out to help others, first those whom he had hurt and then anyone among the Nephites who had turned from God.  His friends, sons of Mosiah, went through a similar process and they reached out to the Lamanites. Those were superb examples of step 12.  In AA they say (referring to recovery) "If you want to keep it, you must share it."  That is a corollary on "If you don't use it, you lose it," or "To keep your testimony, you must share it" or "Because I have been given much, I too must give."

Because I have been given much, I too must give

© May 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson

* Chart from Book of Mormon Central