February 1

Our First Step in the Basic Text says that when we admit our powerlessness and the inability to manage our own lives we open the door to Recovery. We find the opposite to be true also, without Complete Surrender we close the door to Recovery. Many of us came in with the G.O.D. "Gift of Desperation".

Some of us came in with back problems; we wanted to get people off our backs, some were mandated, others woman-dated. Whatever first got us here, may not keep us here. We hear members shout, "Keep coming back!", at our meetings.

Our predecessors knew that our initial Surrender had to be kept alive. We had to develop smart feet, going to meetings was our physical act of Surrender. There's more to the First Step, our Honesty and Admittance had to be backed up by our Actions to have any effect.

We had to mentally Surrender by opening our minds to a Power that could relieve our obsession to use drugs, and later on other obsessions as well. Tapping into this Power we then Surrendered to the Willingness to apply these simple Spiritual Principles in our Lives. The foundation in the first Three Steps gives us the Tools we need to continue in the Recovery Process that's offered in Narcotics Anonymous. Our level of Surrender is in direct proportion to the Actions we take in our Recovery.

We learn that we couldn't win until we Surrendered. The fight is fixed, but with our Higher Power as our Trainer and the Fellowship in our corner, We Do Recover.