Step 11 suggests that we seek "through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out."

There are three phrases used here to talk about our relationship with God. The first is "conscious contact with God." The second is "understand[ing] God." and the third is "knowledge of God's will for us."

But let's think for a moment of what is not being talked about it. The most striking thing is that there is no talk of knowledge of God. So Step 11 is not pointing us to a philosophical truth or even a religious truth. It's much more practical than that -- it's telling us what to do if we want contact with God and if we want to know what God wants us to do.

It follows that we need to be very careful indeed when we talk about "feeling God's presence" or about certain practices "feeling right." We need to be sure that we are not measuring our feelings against our supposed knowledge of God. In the same way (and this may be more significant for those of us in Program), it's important not to dismiss certain of our experiences as having nothing to do with God. It's easy to "see God" in the beauty of a sunset or of a moving song. But -- since God is without limit -- are we also able to see God in the mundane activities of everyday life, or in moments of sadness or despair?

When we are open to experiencing God literally in all that we do, say, think, or feel, then our prayer and meditation is no longer limited to quiet moments in our rooms. Instead, we find conscious contact with God in the entirety of our lives.