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.
Written By Armand
Finding and then leading a purposeful life seems to have been an impossible quest for us alcoholics. Certainly, barroom nights and hungover days aimed us nowhere but to the scrap heap of human existence. Underneath my drinking crawled ego, fear, pride, laziness and finger-pointing. None of those were helpful in trying to find my purpose. This, I headed headlong to the purposeless life the The Rewards highlight. A clean pattern of living, we are told, can take the place of our misunderstood and misguided lives. Sponsorship has taught me more than I ever bargained for. The act of helping another sufferer, and the written manifestation of how exactly to do that within The Big Book Program of Recovery has somehow led me to me and to The Power Within me. Through that transformation, I found the Something I have wanted each day of my life without knowing what it was. Today, I know. My purpose in life is to give myself away. Through understanding that purpose, I have literally found the purpose of me.
ReplyDeleteMichael it is only through the helping of all of God's children, in and out of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous that we are then blessed by the grace of God...Thank you...Armand
DeletePage 164 tells me that I have to ask what I can do each day for the man who is still sick and the answers will come if my own house is in order, it simply doesn't work if I don't have anything to give away. In other places it says that strenuous work with another alcoholic is what I need to be doing. But I can only do this with Gods inspiration and power for which I am a channel. To see the people around me recover and change is truly amazing with this program. I have to give it away to keep it. What a gift we have in having the opportunity to lead a spiritual life.
ReplyDeleteAnne yes it is a gift and we can embellish the gift by helping others...Thank you....Armand
DeleteThis Comment Is From A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic
ReplyDeleteArmand,
The true and eternal purpose of all life, I am discovering, is to seek out and discover the Creators ultimate purpose for His creation... All of His creation... The One who pursued me with a love beyond telling and determination that never wavers came for one purpose, "To seek and to save those who are lost," and once found, that I must also do that I may experience the joy of His presence not only in this life but fully and unencumbered in the life to come. For then I will see Him face to face no longer through the "cloudy looking glass" of my all too mortal journey.
As our relationship grows, the cloak of darkness that had once disguised life's challenges as insurmountable mountains of gloom and doom is lifted to reveal another touchstone of progress on the path to experiencing the purest form of love that exists, that is, Himself. And beyond that, to share the Source of that sacrificial love with all whom He places in my path, both inside and out of the "rooms"... The 12 Steps comprise the simple program that opens the door to the immeasurable depth, fullness and light that is, the mind and heart of God. There is, as you have pointed out, no greater calling.
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic.
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic As the Good Lord sought and saved us our personal relationship with God gives us the power through us to be of help to someone else so that the Good Lord can save them also...Thank you...Armand
DeleteThe purpose of my life is to spend eternity with God. I can do that by praising God and serving others. We have been given a unique opportunity to do so in Step 12. We are not limited to only alcoholics as we are told to practice these principles in all our affairs. But because I am an alcoholic I have an opportunity to be of particular use to another AA fellow. I need to make hay while I can!!!
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ReplyDeleteJim love the line 'praising God and serving others." Yes Jim we have to make hay while the sun is shining...Thank you...Armand
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