At 5:00 pm on Mother’s Day 1935 a therapeutic "spark"¹ was ignited when Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, two alcoholics, met at the Seiberling mansion in Akron, Ohio. By 1939 “Alcoholics Anonymous” had been published and the “Twelve Steps” formulated. In 1949 Bill declared: “We now gaze upon 80,000 miracles of personal recovery. We see that each has been enabled by God’s grace TO ACHIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE!”²

Imagine! From the providential encounter of two worn out drunks the recovery movement has spread like wild fire around the globe! Today over 100 different types of recovery programs (EG - NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS, GAMBLERS ANONYMOUS, OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS, SEXUAL ADDICTION ANONYMOUS) guide people to freedom from addictive behavior!

RECOVERY! “How does it work”?³  “Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery.”⁴  Subsequent to enumeration of the Twelve Steps, the Big Book continues: “The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress.” ⁵  Note the structure! Program … Principles … Progress! Recovery progress is produced by following a program of spiritual principles. Here’s “The $64,000 Question”: what was THE SOURCE of these spiritual principles?

“Way back Rev Samuel Shoemaker taught us the principles that afterward came to full flower in AA’s Twelve Steps of recovery.”⁶  Bob elaborated. “In early AA we had neither Twelve Steps nor Traditions. But we were convinced that THE ANSWER to our problems was in THE GOOD BOOK. It wasn’t until 1938 that the teachings, efforts and studies that had been going on were crystallized in the form of the Twelve Steps. We already had THE BASIC IDEAS as a result of our study of THE GOOD BOOK.”⁷

In the Bible Bob and Bill discovered the “road of recovery”⁸. The earliest title of the Big Book was “The Way Out”⁹.  Consequently, I have titled this series of meditations: “Exodus to Freedom”. Based upon the second book of the Bible, it explores “the road of happy destiny” that the recovery pioneers “trudged”.¹⁰  Here’s their personal invitation to every addict! “We have been talking about problems because we are problem people who have found a way up and out, and who wish to share our knowledge of that way with all who can use it.”¹¹