Self-acceptance and Service

WHEN I FIRST came to AA, some four years ago, I was told that alcoholism was a disease, mental, physical, and spiritual in nature. Just out of an institution, I could accept the physical part readily and even the mental part to some extent--but the spiritual idea meant nothing at all to me. It only ruffled my feathers and sounded like religious nonsense, the more so since God and prayer were so much in evidence at the meeting. Then, I heard that the AA program was a program of ongoing recovery through spiritual growth. I knew then that AA was not for me. Obviously, these people were different; I had no religion and no soul that I knew about. I would just have to do it my way.