Thursday, February 26, 2015

A Purposeful Life

                     As sponsors in Alcoholics Anonymous we must live the principles of the program if we are to have integrity in presenting the principles of AA.  We have come to understand that our very lives as ex problem drinkers is dependent upon the lives we are called to help.  Our lives than take on a purpose and meaning that we had not experienced before.
                   In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous in the chapter How It Works it says "practical experience shows that nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking as intense work with other alcoholics - you can help when no one else can.  Remember they are very ill.  Life will take on a new meaning.  To watch people recover, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends - this is an experience you will not want to miss.  We know you will not want to miss it.  Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives."
                   There is nothing that we can do with ourselves that is more important then to help someone else recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.  Nothing.  In order for this recovery to occur for them in its purest form, those we are helping must develop a personal relationship with God and it is through this relationship that they will recover to know serenity, peace and joy possibly for the first time in their lives.
Obviously this can't possibly occur for others if it has not occurred for us as we can't give away that which we don't have. Live this life and you will be living A PURPOSEFUL LIFE.

4 comments:

  1. I have truly found my purpose in life. It is to serve others. Since I've come back into A.A. And experianced the 12steps my Spirit has been filled with the Holy Spirit. Living life carrying these tools I've found, & that by constantly practicing the 10th, 11th, & 12th steps my circular being is surrounded by steps 1thru 9. Spending time with newcomers and others who
    Are clinging on to the fact that by not drinking and going to meetings will keep them sober is not the solution. Taking others through the Big Book & the 12 steps as they are laid out in this Book, rewards come with many Spiritual experiences. I've been awakened to these experiences, as God's plans are revealed to me.
    They have always been there but I wasn't recognizing these things until my mind was awakened to them . Now my life has purpose, His purpose. To love and serve, as my Lord and savior Jesus Christ did and still does. I thank Him every day for A.A. And the doors it has opened up for me and our fellows !

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  2. Don our only purpose in life was to attempt to satisfy our human instinct. Through the lash of alcoholism we have found a purpose in our problem. That problem can only truly be solved in the will of God and we can't possibly be in His will without helping others...Thanks...Armand

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  3. In AA, I found that the road to The Power Within me was through another. Nothing has ever given me such satisfaction and pleasure as sharing myself with someone who is where I've been and has a genuine desire to recover from our perilous condition. Other alcoholics actually opened my heart for the divine healing which would follow. There is one thing of which I am absolutely certain: that is that love is the proper response to everything. And alcoholics need and appreciate love as no others.

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  4. Michael loved when I read "love is the proper response to everything." The source of that love comes from the spirit within us which had always been there but was blocked by our self will. It is that exact source that gives us the power to help others in the sense that is necessary for them to recover,...Thank you...Armand

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