There was a time in my life that I was a spiritual advisor for some guys in Alcoholics Anonymous.  AA has spiritual advisors in large part because one of the first things that participants have to do is acknowledge a higher power. The authors of the AA Big Book said that they
 
* Step 1 – We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
 
* Step 2 – Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
 
* Step 3 – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.
 
More and more I believe that these three principles can apply to those facing problems in their middle age years. How many people are addicted to a life that doesn’t serve who they are? How many men are knowingly living lives, as Thoreau put it, of quiet desperation? Is that not insane?
 
Why do men not make changes? I think in large part because they don’t have a higher power that they turn their lives over to. Even if that higher power is nothing more than their own set of values and desires.