"MAKING YOUR LIFE WORTHWHILE"

Have you every realized that all around us there lies a realm of infinite power which we can train ourselves at any time to tap for our own use? This power surrounds us as the atmosphere does, and like the atmosphere, it belongs to everyone, and is at the disposal of anyone, for any good purpose. This Power, which is the real source of all things that exist, needs only to be consciously contacted in order to flow into your being, and transform itself into health, into true prosperity, into inspiration, or into anything else that you may be needing. This Power is quite impersonal in itself, but it is always seeking a chance to express itself through particular personalities, through you or through me, if only we will let it.

In this essay, Fox cites the case of a woman who was in desperate straits but learned to contact Higher Power and was led into a successful career as a dress designer. He also mentions an architect (probably Frank Lloyd Wright) who worked in the same way, and a lawyer who managed to restore his health. Fox explains that this Power is available to everybody and gives the following instructions for contacting it:

Get by yourself for a few minutes once a day for several days---if you can choose about the same time each day, so much the better, but this is not essential---drop all your worries for the time being---this is absolutely essential---relax the body, and quietly invite the Great Universal Power to come into your mind and endow you with whatever thing you are most needing; whether that be health, or guidance, or some information concerning a particular matter, or a job, or even money, or what not. But on no account must you give instructions to that Power, because it will not take them; and if you try to compel it, nothing will happen. Be receptive. Be open-minded. Be humble. Do not be impatient; and you will see what you will see. Something remarkable will happen.

Mel B.'s comment about the preceding excerpts:

I have long believed that some of my best spiritual help has come from reading the books of Emmet Fox, especially "The Sermon on the Mount." I also learned in a brief discussion with Bill W. that he and the other pioneer AA's attended Emmet Fox's lectures in New York in the late 1930s and benefited from them.

I like the above statements from Emmet Fox because they explain how Higher Power can work in our lives for good purposes. These statements also explain the conditions for such guidance and why it does not work at times.

In the above statements, I also underlined "consciously contacted" and "Be receptive. Be open-minded. Be humble." It does appear that Bill W. might have heard Fox use "consciously contacted." That may be how it emerged in Step Eleven. And "receptive" certainly equals "willingness," while "humble" can be close to what we regard as "honest." Thus we have three terms giving us an equivalency to the Honesty, Open-Mindedness, and Willingness we emphasize in the program.

Page 149 of "Alter Your Life©"
Harper & Brothers, New York, Copyrights listed as 1931 through 1950
 

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