There is a story in "the other Big Book" about a merchant. It's a brief story. One day he saw a pearl more beautiful than anything he had seen before -- and with a price that was enormous. To possess it, the merchant sold everything that he had.

Program comes in two broad parts. There is the solution to the presenting problem of active addiction -- to sex, alcohol, money, whatever it might be. But the second part, which can take many years to come, is based on the understanding that our real solution consists only partly in the cessation of our active addiction -- that its true focus is a spiritual awakening, whose realization really comes about as we practice the last three Steps.

It's tempting to try and gain the benefits of that awakening without actually changing anything in our lives. After a few years of recovery, most of us have developed a fairly comfortable lifestyle. We have goals for ourselves and for our loved ones. And we are not inclined to rock the boat by becoming overly ambitious about spiritual growth -- particularly if it's going to affect that lifestyle.

This must have been the dilemma that faced the merchant. His choice was to sell everything to gain the pearl. Fortunately we will probably not be called to make such a sudden dramatic sacrifice. But increasingly, as we practice the last three Steps, we become aware that we can only truly experience that spiritual awakening to the extent that we are willing to surrender what we already "have."