The question is: What does this mean, "to turn our lives, and will over to the care of G-d".

Does this mean that I must now be 100% Tzadik? Do, this, and do that, and fulfill this, and fulfill that? Avoid this, and avoid that? For "ME", this is the very type of avodas Hashem that we have all been trying to do, and........the proof is in the pudding, we have not succeeded. Look we have found ourselves.

This is NOT step #3 that they were referring to. To try to connect to Hashem with heartless, lifeless fulfillment of do's, and dont's will not, and has not enabled us to "turn our lives over to..."

We have all just been acting, and dressing like devout "frum" yidden....ha ha ha.   

What does Hashem tell us via the navi, "it is not your zevachim, korbons that I want every time you are oiver,.....your empty korbonos???who needs them!  "I want your hearts"!!!!

If we can get by step #3, and completely turn ourselves over to Hashem, i.e. get rid of the "I", "ME", then the true fulfillment of the 613 will most  likely come natural.

Mr. "Me",
Thank you very much for sharing your insight into these steps.  I wanted to comment about your inspirational reaction to Bill Wilson, aka Bill W.  While I have tremendous respect and gratification for the 12 steps community, unfortunately, Bill W. was the ironic twist of the story. His real life is nothing of inspiration.  He had a very hard life, indeed, and unfortunately, never really recovered from his deep seated addiction. He is hardly a person to describe as living with G-d. After he "recovered"  from his alcohol addiction (He never really recovered from that. At the end of his life he was noted for punching a nurse for not bringing to him his fix of alcohol ), his sex addiction increased where he had a secret affair with Helen Wynn. This was covered up by the 12 steps community.  He would sexually abuse the younger women in recovery.  So while Bill professed honesty, he was living a lie.  This is hardly a person tat lives with G-d.  And there are some who still insist that how wonderful that is. Despite his terrible actions, he still had belief. Fine. But this is not the level of emunah and bitachon I aspire for. And it is certainly not the level of recovery I aspire for.  He received this "emunah" training form a crazed christian fanatic called Frank Buchman, who was the leader of the famed "Oxford Group".  The "Oxford Group" focused on the idea of G-d Controlling everything. I do not need to get into this now, but there is a fundamental difference between Jewish though and Christian thought in this regard.  This man, Frank Buchman, besides for doing crazy things like abusing men, praising Hitler,wold do irresponsible things and say it must be G-d wants.  So these "Goyish drunkards" friends of yours, you way want to reconsider and get yourself new friends.  If you are looking for a inspiration in normal emunah and bitachon, it may be more advisable to read from the chazon Ish. Just a suggestion.

But the reason why I call it the ironic twist, is because end of the day we ended up with the fairly nice program for addiction recovery.  While there are many recovery programs out there today, we all gratitude to the 12 steps for pioneering the project.  Even those that disagree with them, have lots in common with 12 steps. And lets not overlook the success of 12 steps. They are somewhat successful. Even to those that do not recover, they at least  gain hope in 12 steps.  So while this stemmed from a crazy man, who had a very messed up life, with no goals but ti drink another drink, we all gained.  The followers were stronger than the leaders.  We have all seen examples like this both in recent years and in history.

Thanks for sharing you feeling towards these steps. There is lots of confusion about them. 

As for me, I try to stay away from these "philosophical" and religious issues.  I came to realize that this is not a religious problem and I can;t expect to solve it on a religious basis solely. This definitely gives me some of my motivation, but the recovery needs to be treated from an addiction point of view. 

Hello jooboy On your original question the guard posted a most amazing and touching tape from rabbi reisman

do you have the location of this tape?