I had no idea what God was.
“The answer I was looking for was on page 12 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, in Ebby’s words to Bill: ’”Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?”’
“’I’ve tried everything else,’ I thought, ’and I’ve got no place else to go. I might just as well.’ I sat down at my desk, got a pad of paper and a pencil, and asked myself, ’If you could pick the kind of God that you could believe in, what would He/She/It be like?’ I bore in mind the facts that I was an alcoholic and that I had been a perfectionist all my life. The world was never perfect enough for me. Everything that I ever believed in, every ideal that I ever followed turned out to have feet of clay. Here was my chance. For the first time in my life, I could create something perfect. All right!
“I wrote across the page, ’God is the perfection I’ve been searching for all my life. He is too perfect to have human characteristics and faults.’ That was the start.
“Then I wrote, ’God is the ultimate perfection. He is the perfect love, the perfect truth, the perfect goodness, the perfect understanding, tolerance, mercy, forgiveness. God is so perfect that no matter how evil, how unclean we may be, He’ll forgive us if we ask, and grant us strength to overcome our shortcomings.’”
Just for Today © 1973 AAWS, Inc.; Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, pgs. 63-64
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