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.
Written By Armand
Many years ago with multiple decades in AA, I sensed that I was missing a key ingredient to living a purposeful life. Family life was in order, material and business rewards were plentiful, newfound friends abounded. Yet, the essence of my life and its wholeness was wanting. It was at that point that I began to learn the lesson of my sober life: that in order to purify my existence, I had to develop and strengthen a personal relationship with The Power Within me. But how was that to occur! In my sponsors words, I had "to incorporate The Twelve Steps into my life in such a way that they would become my life." Then I would have something to give away - my life. And an immediately available fellowship that would want to have (and need) what I had so that they could do exactly the same. If there is anything more that could define my purpose, I haven't found it. And you know it when you find it.
ReplyDeleteMichael it is in our problems we fund our purpose. God BLESS You for answering the call...Thank you...Armand
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ReplyDelete11. "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." Every step is in the order it is for a reason and Step 11 is no exception. All are written in the past perfect tense in the form of a testimony and as such forms a collective a deposition and map of a journey on the road less traveled with a simple clarity seldom encountered in secular writings.
For in AA we do not "work" Step 11 as though it were a point on the great "check list to recovery" as some may suppose or propose. The journey itself is the destination inspired and ultimately, through Gods grace, fervently desired. It is; in its entirety, God's gift to everyone who is willing to embrace the immutable truth of His Word and undeniable Presence of His Person the moment "We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."
This "Fruit of the Spirit" is a never ending story and manifestation of the divinely desired relationship, once locked in eternity and now inspired into our consciousness moment by moment, day by day as we pass through this life called space and time. And although it was always a part of His great plan I know now that my personal epiphany began the instant I "Admitted I was an alcoholic and that my life had become unmanageable" and that, as the poet has written, "has made all the difference", for I am convinced that the Creator of All continues to lovingly conform every aspect of life into His personal prayer and vision.
12. "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs". As the old desires are being systematically swept away, I'm compelled to inwardly nurture and surrender to this ongoing and ever broadening relationship with the Creator, Maintainer and Lover of my soul. I have, become a new creation.
Just as the 11th step bears witness to my understanding that it is God Alone who is the instigation and inspiration for my desire to commune with and please Him in all that He has called me to accomplish, any personal confusion over the principal priority for my life dissolves as His ultimate plan and purpose is made immediately clear in the very core of my being. Having once and forever been saved we're now called to be an "evangelist", that is, a witness to the Source of Eternal Truth.
And so, as this once desperately lived life begins to bear the unmistakable witness of Gods presence in the purpose for which I have eternally been created. The Holy Spirit who now resides within me is the magnet of promise that draws those still trapped inside the insatiable, desperate loneliness of a life without hope, to the Source of eternal serenity, peace and rest. "That one is God, may you find him now".
A Grateful Recovering Alcoholic
Frequent contact with others is the bright spot of my life in this disease of isolation. To keep it I have to give it all away-the limitless lode. When I first came to AA I thought there is no way I can help others as I was so dazed and confused. Eventually by following the principles if AA I was able to do what my sponsor told me when she gave me a meditation book the twelve steps and traditions and a 24 hour chip- ‘you can do it for someone one day.’ On those conditions I was able to accept what she gave me and she gave me so much more as time went on. There is a book devited to ‘Pass it On’ which is the very basis if why AA is so successful for me and many others.
ReplyDeleteAnne as Bill says "simple but not easy." Simply surrender your human nature to the will of God and help others to do the same...Thank you...Armand
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