Step 3 (Continued)
 
J: We are the only animal, by the way, we're God's greatest creation. We are God's greatest creation. When God created the world, he had a covenant with man. He said all the other animals of the world, all the other animals that I will control and direct them. All the other animals are God directed. They weren't given the ability of doing what they wanted to do, or running their lives. And since God directs them, he cares for them, he feeds them he shelters them.
But, he wanted man to take dominion over the earth, so he gave us the ability to reason. He gave man the ability of self-will, of self-directions. We are the only
animal -- we have been blessed, or cursed with that, whichever way you look at it. You know, I look at the so called dumb animals, that God can direct the bird-, he seems to direct them. They can go all the way to South America, thousands of miles. They can take directions from something outside of themselves. They are directed all the way, five or six thousand miles. They turn around next year and they fly back and come right back to the same place on the same day.
But there is no way you could get men to do that. Before they got to the border down here, they'd be arguing like hell. (laughter) Because each of them has self-will. They wouldn't get twenty miles.
C: They wouldn't got past Tucson.
J: They wouldn't get nowhere. Okay, so we have self-will, and it's a God given thing. There's nothing wrong with it. If it's God given, it's supposed to be there. It's supposed to -- a certain amount of that is necessary for the human life. But no one is perfect with it. When it begins to get out of control, the same thing that is necessary and vital to our lives begins to hurt us.
If we go back to the Twelve and Twelve, and deviate here, I think one of the greatest things Bill wrote was Step Four in the "Twelve and Twelve." (In the very front of the Big
Book on page 11, 'OTHER BOOKS, ' it tells us that the "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" is 'An interpretive commentary on the A. A. program by a
co-founder') It actually talks about self-will. He said if we didn't care about one another, and ourselves, and our self-esteem, there would be no society. This is a survival instinct.
Self-will is a survival instinct. If we didn't have security, if we didn't harvest food or construct shelter, the human race wouldn't survive.
So security is a part of self-will. Just like our social instinct. He also says, if it wasn't for sex we wouldn't reproduce, and there would be no survival of the human race on this earth. (" Twelve and Twelve," p. 42.)
So God placed these things in man for our survival. These are necessary. They are vital, and they are God given. But these same things that are necessary for life, sometime they far exceed their proper function. They get out of control. Instead of them being an asset, they become a liability to our lives.
So what happened is (that) we have let self get out of control. And since there are only two wills in the world, the will of man, and the will of God, only God can correct the will of man. One can eliminate the other. So this is our decision. It all started--Charlie and I will get into this, I think it helps. I go all the way back to the beginning of time, when Adam and Eve began, when man first began.
You know, they were new at this thing called living. They didn't know a lot about it in the first days. They were in serenity park, the little garden. They were just nice, you know. (laughter) Boy, they had it made. They laid back just taking it easy. They were the only humans here. All other animals operated off of God's will. So it was easy for them to go along with it. They did know anything different. God told them what to do. Do this and do this, and they just followed God's directions. hen, it was the finest place we ever had here.
What happened the little snake came along, and he said, why don't you all eat that apple, told Eve first. Eve said, we can't eat that apple. Said, why? Well, God just said we couldn't. Snake probably said, who does he think he is, God? (laughter) You know, he said, I can't do it, but you have self-will. You all can, you and Adam. You all can do what
you all want to do, because you have self-will. Even though He said that, you can still do what you want to do, because He has given you that ability. Eve went over and told
Adam, said, let go eat the apple.
So they ate it. Later on God came through and said, hey, what happened to the apple. Adam said, we ate it. I thought I told you not to do it. How come you ate that apple. We
think he was probably the first alcoholics because he said, she made me do it. (laughter) Typical. And Eve was probably the first compulsive overeater, too. But from there on, we have the right, we have the basic ability of self-will, and we will always have it. I think the greatest thing that we are trying to do, is we are trying to live a self-directed life, in a God directed world.
That's the trouble of it. That's the frustration of it. You know, we have to make a decision to give up this self-will. This is a very difficult thing. It is not an easy thing. If we were week people, it would be easy to give up self-will. An alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will. You have to be strong willed to be an alcoholic. A weak person could never get this illness. The first time he vomited he would quit. You can't make it that-a-way. (laughter) You have to really be hard headed, and self-willed. And this is the root of our problem.
C: I think in order for us to really understand this, let's take a look at some of this information. And Bill did talk about in the "Twelve and Twelve." Like we said a while
ago, some of that information in the "Twelve and Twelve is absolutely brilliant. In the first couple of pages in Step Four
J: Study it.
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