"Don't give up five minutes before the miracle occurs," say our friends when we're in the early days of our recovery.

This is Step 2 at work. We come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity because we can tell that it's worked for our friends in Program. They've been along this path themselves. They too have been tempted to give up, and have been urged by their friends not to quit five minutes before the miracle occurs.

Step 2 lies behind the last three Steps as well. Rarely are we impelled to start to work the last three Steps on a daily, meaningful basis because we've got a clear idea of what will result if we do. Instead, we tend to work them because some of our friends in Program tell us what it did for them. And when we look at these people, when we see how they act, how they behave, and when we see that they seem no longer to be quite the people they were, we use Step 2 all over again. We come to believe that we can experience what they've experienced.

For whatever reason, the number of people in recovery who make the journey of the last three Steps is much smaller than the number of people who began the journey of recovery. It's the difference, I suppose, between five minutes and three Steps. I am very glad that I've met relatively few people in the early days of my recovery who quit five minutes before the miracle occurred. But I know countless members of my fellowship who have quit three Steps before the real miracle occurred.