“My obsession was all-powerful.
Summoning all my resources, I could not dislodge it.
Then three simple words did the trick: ”Came to believe.”

– Anonymous

“We were prisoners of our obsessions. No more. Three words, “came to believe,” were the key that unlocked the gates of our personal prison.”

– “In God’s Care*: Daily Meditations on Spirituality in Recovery,” June 1
*As We Understand God

Today is three weeks from my belly button birthday. This year it is particularly special because (1) I’m taking vacation for my first ‘real’ travel in four years, and (2) I’m flying to Colorado to spend time and celebrate it with my dearest friends who relocated from Sedona shortly after I had moved back north to Prescott.

But I have another birthday that is equally as important: the day more than 30 years ago I finally had the willingness to walk into a 12 Step meeting to address my eating disorder and addiction. When I heard the words “came to believe,” I started my road to recovery and sanity. That was the beginning of my coming to believe in a power greater than myself that could restore me to sanity and put me on a path to walk with Spirit and have a richer, more meaningful life.

I’d been a devout atheist for about half my life by then, so I didn’t quite know how I was going to work a program where they mentioned God. But I’d reached the point of being willing, and the rest is history. As I worked the 12 Step program and gave service to the Fellowship, my whole attitude upon life, people, and the world changed. Oh, and of course, this thing some people called “God.” I found the evidence I had been looking for; it was just different than I’d expected.

My life changed so dramatically, for the good, that I always count March 10, 1990 as my rebirth, another birthday in this lifetime. After my physical birth, it is the most important day of my life: the birth of my coming to believe in Spirit.