Remember when you family started to trust you again? Your dishonesty had been lifted. Remember what it was like to look around at your meeting and know you belonged? Your loneliness was lifted. God gave us memory that we might have roses in December.ĭo you remember what it was like to not have sobriety? Remember the shame? Remember the loneliness? Remember lying and wishing you could stop? Remember the powerlessness? Do you remember, also, how it felt when you began to believe you had an illness? Your shame was lifted. My healthy growth in sobriety should be reward enough. I’ll watch myself for any tendency to demand credit for the things I do in the program. Ironically, if we don’t try to obtain credit for our actions, it sometimes comes anyway, without effort on our part. The real kicker is that people who demand recognition never get enough of it. It is a way of saying that we still don’t believe good work should be done for its own sake, but rather for the applause that goes with it. It is an indication that we still need applause and approval of the sort that drove us while we were drinking. Even the pioneers of AA had disputes about who deserved credit for the fellowship’s success.ĭemanding credit and recognition is a loser’s game for people who are seeking growth in sobriety. The struggle for recognition sometimes takes an ugly form in AA. While the comment or advice of others may not be infallible, it is likely to be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still inexperienced in establishing contact with a Power greater than ourselves. Surely, then, a novice ought not lay himself open to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders. People of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual advisers the guidance they feel they have received from God. How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was plain that they were mistaken? Lacking both practice and humility, they deluded themselves and were so able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them. Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous. I pray that my fear will flee before the power of the love of God. I pray that love will drive out the fear in my life. The only sure way to dispel fear is to have the love of God more and more in your heart and soul. But a strong love, a love that trusts in God, is sure eventually to conquer fear. And therefore a weak and vacillating love can soon be routed by fear. By their very natures, they cannot exist side by side. Do I appreciate the deep personal fellowship of A.A.? We try to go deep down into the personal lives of our members. We have a real desire to be of service to each other. We also try to get down to the real problems in each others’ lives. Such a fellowship is based on a common belief in God and a common effort to live a spiritual life. My Higher Power gives me exactly what He wants me to do at any given point in my recovery and, if I let Him, my willingness will bring Twelfth Step work automatically.Ĭlergymen speak of the spiritual fellowship of the church. I get involved in “brotherly and harmonious action.” At meetings I show up early to greet people and to help set up, and to share my experience, strength and hope. Even if I haven’t been asked to sponsor and my phone rarely rings, I am still able to do Twelfth Step work. My idea is to get out of myself and simply do what I can. Few can equal that book for carrying the message. The most far-reaching Twelfth Step work was the publication of our Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution.
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