Daily
Reflections reading December 17th
A Priceless Reward
work
with other alcoholics. . . . It works when other activities fail. ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS, p. 89
“Life
will take on a new meaning,” as the Big Book says (p. 89) This promise has helped
me to avoid self-seeking and self-pity. To watch others grow in this wonderful
program, to see them improve the quality of their lives, is a priceless reward
for my effort to help others. Self-examination is yet another reward for an
ongoing recovery, as are serenity, peace and contentment. The energy derived
from seeing others on a successful path, of sharing with them the joys of the
journey, gives to my life a new meaning.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on December 17th Reading
I have seen so many wake up to the
solutions to there problems, working on the steps with them, strange thing is
the more I teach others the more, I learn about myself giving this program to
those who want many don’t want it
This is felt from the heart, to show them
the God I found in the halls is all unconditionally loving and forgiven was my
own first miracle of recovery, when sharing this with others it some times is
hard to do because like myself they too have disowned God
Many of the people I have sponsored were
the type other wanted nothing to do with, they were to outcast even from the AA
program, one man asked me why I waste my time trying to help people who just
keep going back out over and over again
My answer was simple because everyone
else gave up on them does not mean I should, I get more from helping them, than
I could ever give them, I remember the many homeless people who came to our
meeting in my early sobriety just for something to eat
When I first got sober we did not have a
whole lot of meetings in our area, one a week in different city or town, so we
had to travel a lot to carry the message to others, before we started to open
new meetings in or city's and towns
I remember one that we just started where
we all brought food and treats for the meeting, this is when the homeless came
every meeting night for a hot coffee, or a sandwich, dress in the trench coats
and having to stand down wind of them
One such man who came every meeting night
was sleeping in a cardboard box behind a bar, he had a hard time even talking
to anyone, but he kept coming, the more I saw him the more, I talked to him in
the kitchen of the meeting hall over a cup of coffee
He disappeared and it was three years
later I met him again in a meeting my group was putting on in a large city, he
was dressed in a three piece suit stopped me after the meeting and said you
don't remember me do you
He said he went into a drying out place
and got sober, because of what I had given him at those meeting long ago, he
was now a successful lawyer, sponsoring others who were as sick as he was three
years ago
Now it that is not one of the priceless
rewards of the fellowship I don't know what would be, when we reach out, we
never know who we are going to help and some time we don't see the light of
recovery go off in them, because they moved along in another place
But I know I was in awe of seeing this
man doing so well, knowing he lived in a cardboard box behind that bar and he
would collect trash for a rendering company in the city, the man would come
every morning shake the box and ask if he wanted to make a few buck
This is just one of the many people I
reached out to when others would not and after tell the man who asked me why I
waste my time reaching out to them, he was in awe because he know the man I was
talking about from that day forwards he always reached out to anyone coming
into the halls
Another man I sponsored when to 15 detoxes,
would get a few months together and would go back out, he always called me when
he wanted the help again, I know several others had tried to help him but to no
avail, he just was not ready then
But he did get sober on the 15th try and
now has 12 years sober and is doing fantastic, he went to collage got a degree
and change his whole live around, when I first started to sponsor him I gave
him one of my coins
I told him he had to keep it until he got
his one year coin and he kept that coin in his pocket for about four years
before he got his first one, he told me he was going to glue it to my
windshield once because he know I would never take it back until he got his own
After he got his year coin I told him he
could keep the one I gave him, because it has become part of him walking thru
the wreckage of his past with me, again another gift from God to see him doing
so good and staying with recovery
So as the big book says "nothing
will so insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with alcoholics. It
works when other activities fail, watching people recover, to see them help
others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up around you, to
have a host of friends this is an experience you must not miss”
I agree with that I could never have
dreamed of all the rewards of working with another alcoholic, all the turmoil
of my past, has been the biggest asset I have in helping others walk down the cluttered
path of their life, as I had to do with my sponsor
To look back to my beginnings when I
first got into recovery, I was hopeless and thought I had nothing to offer, how
could I ever dream that my hopelessness was to be one of the greatest gift God
could give me to share with others
My Higher Power has always arranged that
just the right question be asked at just the right time, I realized the
hopelessness of my condition, but I had no idea that there could be a solution,
to think spiritual principles could save us all
It is the sharing of our collective
experience, strength, hope making a difference in our own recovery walk day by
day in the path of spiritual progress the things that came to me when I put
myself in God's hands were better than anything I could have planned
Please feel free to mail
suggestions or comments
