Powerless

As a grateful member of Al-Anon, I've become familiar with the 12 steps of the program.   The first three steps could be summarized as:

1) Admitted we were powerless and our lives had become unmanageable.
2) Came to believe that a Higher Power could restore us to sanity.
3) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the God of our understanding.

I've recently been inspired to learn more about St. Teresa of Avila, an mystic of the Catholic Church.  Her autobiography, Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life , was written around 1562 (roughly 450 years ago).

In the chapter "Twenty Years of Turbulence" she describes her struggles with her spiritual journey.
Near the end of the chapter, she writes:

"I beseeched the Beloved to help me.  But I failed to put the whole of my trust in God and relinquish all traces of trust in myself.  I searched earnestly for a remedy; I tried everything.  But without the fundamental realization that I was powerless and that the only thing that I could rely on was God, my efforts were useless." (emphasis mine).

I got goosebumps.