What does it mean to "hit bottom"?
For most people, as far as I can reckon, the idea of "Hitting Bottom" is about "Giving Up."
Yet the AA program takes a man from his own efforts in terms of quitting drink to his own religious efforts, which in that case have more to do with taking one's inventory, going to meeting, and doing "Twelfth Step" Work.
One section of the Big Book suggests that a man's work in the program is never done:
It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will. (AA, p. 85)
Like many religious systems, mixture is the order of the day. God keeps us sober -- if we work our program. God loves and stays connected to us, provided that we stay in fit "spiritual condition."
Yet what does the Bible say?
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
The new covenant has nothing to do with us. Jesus made this crystal clear before, during, and after His death on the Cross:
"I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." (John 17: 4)
then
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19: 30)
And of course:
"Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20: 17)
God is now Father and God to us, specifically, all because of what Jesus has done, and we cannot presume to add one thing, lest we step out of grace and end up in dead works once again.
If we try to "hit bottom" or at least wait for "bottom", we end back in works, and men and women will end up tied up in the "ministry of death" ( ):
"I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
"But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7: 21-24)
Now, "hitting bottom" does not set us free, but rather the Truth -- Jesus Christ -- He sets us free:
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8: 32)
then
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8: 36)
It is truth that breaks us free from error, not necessarily breaking down with nothing left to fight with. If we do not share with men and women that every sin has been paid for in full forever, the few timid steps that men and women take toward sobriety will inevitably be tangled up in looking at oneself, wondering about oneself, caught in self, the very bondage which God the Father seeks to break us free from:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
Instead of trying to "hit bottom", which is a bottomless pit that leads to destruction, let us reveal to men and women the ministry of righteousness (2 Corinthians 3: 9), that in Christ all our sins are forgiven, that in Him we have both life and security, and that through Him we live and move and have our being.
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