INTRODUCTION OF AA TO A NEW FELLOW

INTRODUCTION OF AA TO A NEW FELLOW

Early in recovery, before the fog lifts, many people find it difficult to grasp what is going on in AA meetings. At some point during with-drawl, you may begin to feel really good. This can be dangerous, if then you conclude, “Great, I have licked my addiction”. The truth is that it is just the beginning to deal with your problem. For at least the next year the business of recovery will have to be the focus of your existence. Business as usual will have to wait.

In their sincere and honest attempt to maintain a "hands-off" policy regarding fellow member’s religious beliefs and perhaps sensitivities, our founding fathers exercised gentle wisdom and proffered spiritual freedom. This area is much too important to the prospective recoveree to be tampered with by mortal man. The very life of the prospect depends, ultimately, upon his or her "personal relationship" with a "Power greater than him or her self".

The whole purpose as alcoholics in recovery is to help the next person achieve sobriety. If that person is a real alcoholic his only hope is God. So in its most basic and simplest terms our only real purpose is to help the still-suffering alcoholic to find, “A loving God and healing God”.

It seems that many alcoholics have a very fierce, emotionally charged resistance to accepting any dependence upon a Power, which, to them, may seem an abstract and remotely distant concept. "It's God as you understand Him, and it's up to you to come to your own conclusions." So the newcomer is left to his own devices. He is expected to arrive, alone and unguided, at a relationship with his Creator.

We have had deep and effective spiritual experiences, which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way that is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do for ourselves."(BB, Page 25)

If so, we "obviously cannot transmit something we don't have." We cannot share awareness we don't have. Cannot give guidance we have never gotten. We cannot share a vision of God we have never seen. Perhaps this power greater than he was a chair, or a wall, or even a mere mortal sponsor. At the top of page 93 of the "Big Book” makes it very clear that "He can choose any conception he likes, PROVIDED IT MAKES SENSE TO HIM."

Power greater than him - a light bulb? A simple flick of a switch turns off that power. A wall? Not so powerful when confronted with a bulldozer. A chair? An axe can make quick kindling of that higher power. A sponsor then? If he fails to perfect his spiritual life, his old foe alcohol is sure to reclaim him. So he won't do very well as a greater power. How about a whole group? Possibly for someone else, but not for us. If one person is powerless over alcohol, we would have a group of people who are powerless over alcohol. We do not have a group who ARE POWERFUL over alcohol. Yet they do not drink! They have gained access to something more powerful than alcohol.

"We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power which is God. Alcoholics Anonymous is not allied with any religion, as we well know. But it is allied with God, "for our very lives as ex-problem drinkers depend on it." It is allied with spirituality, for despite what our preamble states, AA is not a "fellowship," it is a spiritual way of life. (BB, Page 46)

We each arrived at the doors of AA with an intensive and lengthy "History of Things That Do Not Work" but we will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it!!

KEEP COMING BACK!

ONE DAY AT A TIME!

Once you bring the body, Mind will follow in due course.