Friday, November 25, 2011:
AS BILL SEES IT: 192, Carrying the Message[1].The wonderful energy the Twelfth Step releases, by which it carries our message to the next suffering alcoholic and finally translates the Twelve Steps into action upon all our affairs, is the payoff, the magnificent reality of A.A.
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[2]Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of tools for his inspection. Show him how it worked for you. Offer him friendship and fellowship.
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[3]I am aware that, to an outsider, those who speak of morality/spirituality make the mistake of getting preachy. I am aware of this trepidation because I was once someone who merely wanted to stop drinking and, try as I might; I could not put it away for very long. When I did come to the Fellowship, with hat in hand, I came for help and not to have piled onto my back a guilt burdened morality. I knew I couldn’t live up to that and I feared that spirituality was something one had to almost be born into. I already pictured those who were connected to God, as those in AA claimed, must be metaphorically levitating at all times and I knew myself well enough to know I could never achieve that kind of perfection. Those people who got through to me never treated the Big Book as though it was a sacred text, nor did they pull out quotes from their Bibles Upanishads, Korans or Sutras. They simply demonstrated how the Steps worked for them and I was hooked. I try to approach a still suffering alcoholic/addict knowing full well that the poor soul can see through any hint of hypocrisy on my part. I become grateful my Higher Power came to me as a guru or teacher in that trembling and wary person’s form.
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