Back a while ago, the GSO put out a statement that said that when anyone reaches out that we want the hand of AA to be there. A man brought up the topic today, because a friend of his just died from this disease. He had brought he man to meetings, but the man didn’t get it and consequently went out again. His problem was that he thought he could have done more for the man, but failed to do so.
We used to hear in meetings that “I never got anyone sober and I’ve never got anyone drunk!” I don’t know where that’s gone, but I rarely ever hear it anymore. I know that early on I hated to hear people say that, because in my pride and ego I thought I could get others into sobriety by the sheer force of my intellect and knowledge. After about a year of failures to do so, I had to admit I was wrong and that I was as powerless as the rest of us. What ever made me think that I was different? It was a total lack of humility on my part.
My sponsor, Tom, used to say that “I am but the hand of hope; the group is the hand of help”. My only job is to get people to the meetings and then turn them over to the group, which has the power to turn things around, provided the person has hit a bottom and is willing to listen to what the group has to say. I forgot that it was the power of example of the group as a whole, which had so much impact on me, when I first walked through the doors. Attraction not promotion. I was out there promoting; doing a sales job. People weren’t buying. I forgot there is power in the group and when it is gathered together that there is a spirit present, which if the person is open to it, will turn them around.
The man, who twelfth stepped me, I never met. He was a voice on the other end of a telephone call from a man, who was still drinking. That man, who was still drinking, came to me and coveyed the words of the other man. When I heard those words, it did something to me. I was hopeless at that point and the words gave me hope that there was another way. The same man drove me to my first meeting and there I was placed in the midst of a group, who by their words and example opened up the door to a new life. They freed me.
I have to remember that I am just an agent, as the fifth chapter describes us. We are His agents. We’re just go betweens. Like Sandy B. said, that the highest office any of us can attain to is that of servant. These thoughts are designed to keep me right sized. One spiritual writer once said that it is a very great thing to be small. Can I remember that? I better.
Just some thoughts on a cold winter’s day.