For a really long time I had this idea of Step Three being an inner action, something interior, a moment when we surrender internally--maybe from a holy instance or maybe from hitting a wall of some kind--sort of a loud "Uncle!" moment. 

I have had those moments and those surrenders. But this week, reading the Twelve & Twelve book, I see that it says, "It is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God into our lives."

Now I have read this book many times. I still have my first copy and it is underlined, dog-eared and scribbled in--and I bet there are tears soaked into those pages. But I had never grasped this part about Step Three being action.

I’d always questioned: "How?" How do I take the Third Step?

But on page 34 it says, "Like all the remaining steps, Step Three calls for affirmative action." It just goes to show how language and the meaning of terms can change over the years.

So what is the action? The next nine steps have us writing, calling, meeting, making lists, setting up chairs, going to meetings, confessing, sharing, praying, meditating, and lending a hand in many big and small ways. So what is the action of step three? We can't just think, or even feel our way through it; we have to act, and affirmatively.

What some of the actions might be, I think, are changes to daily behaviors. Things like not fighting everything and everyone; allowing others to be right; accepting situations and decisions that we don’t like; acting like a person with long recovery even when we don’t feel like one.

Yes, in Step Three we surrender. We take a leap of faith. Something that has helped me grasp what that leap of faith means is a scene from a movie that I love. I like to watch the Harrison Ford movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Near the end of that movie Harrison Ford, as Indiana Jones, has to leap across a too-wide void in search of the grail. As he stands on the edge of the great crevasse he looks down and he says, “Oh sh*t” before he steps into what he believes is pure emptiness. And then--then--the bridge appears.

Step Three is always inspiring and uplifting after the bridge appears. But it is also an “oh, Dang!” moment when we decide to take the first action.

Diane C, Albany, NY