442- Mark Houston and Dave F - Fellowship of the Spirit, Part 3442- Mark Houston and Dave F - Fellowship of the Spirit, Part 3
Sober Speak- Alcoholics Anonymous Recovery Interviews
Mark Houston and Dave F share a workshop-style talk focused on Step Two, the need for power, and seeing God as “everything or nothing” in sobriety. Aimed at people with some time in recovery, they offer concrete exercises and spiritual reflections to refresh a tired AA programme.
1:31:11•3 Apr 2026
Freshly Connected to God: Mark Houston & Dave F on Step Two
Episode Overview
- Step Two is framed as a practical need for power, not an intellectual debate about God.
- Areas of life still ruled by fear often reveal where someone has not fully handed things over to a Higher Power.
- A written ‘second step proposition’ and 3x5 card can help reconnect with God quickly when feeling restless, irritable, or discontent.
- Long-term sobriety still requires daily work with Steps Ten, Eleven, and Twelve to stay “spiritually awake.”
- Simply believing in God is not enough; actions, time, and attention show what a person truly trusts.
“If all of us in this room gave God one half the attention, energy, and focus we gave a bottle of whiskey, we’d be saints.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This session from *Sober Speak* drops you right into a live Big Book workshop with Mark Houston and Dave F, recorded back in 2001, shortly after they’d worked the Twelve Steps together. It’s part three of their “Fellowship of the Spirit” series, and you’ll hear why they describe themselves as “freshly connected to God and spiritually awake” as a result of that work.
Speaking to a room of mostly sober Alcoholics, Mark unpacks Step Two with a mix of sharp humour and brutal honesty.
He jokes that Alcoholics talking about God is “quite humorous because we’ve gone through life thinking we’re God,” but then presses into the serious bit: the mind that brought someone into AA is “not where you go for a solution.” He asks everyone to look at the “fruit” of their lives and consider whether their current concept of a Higher Power is actually working. Dave picks up the thread with very practical guidance.
He explains the “second step proposition” — the idea that God is either everything or nothing — and turns it into concrete homework: write down the areas of life not yet given to God, list the fears underneath, and ask, as the Big Book suggests, what God would have you *be* rather than what you should *do*.
He even shows how to put this on a 3x5 card so you can use it in real time when you’re “restless, irritable and discontent.” With guided meditations, prayer, and plenty of laughter about Alcoholic stubbornness, this episode is aimed at people with some sobriety who sense their programme has gone a bit stale and want a deeper, more honest connection with a Higher Power.
If your spiritual life feels lukewarm, could this be the nudge to take Step Two more seriously?
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