Growing Gratitude

“Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends—this is an experience you must not 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” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 89).

This Twelfth Step promise in the Big Book has been my reality for several years. Shortly after my first miracle (I had a spiritual experience and was gifted with abstinence six years ago), my first sponsor guided me to serve others. She asked me to pick up members who needed rides to meetings, encouraged me to start sponsoring and chairing, and told me to attend intergroup meetings.

Service work has been instrumental in my growth and has woven its way into the fabric of my being. These are some of the growth opportunities and rewards I’ve experienced over the past six years:

• I’m less selfish. I work Step Seven, and I’ve become useful to my fellows.
• Service diminishes worry. I stay too busy to be concerned with life’s problems for long. I am learning to live life on life’s terms.
• I stay connected to others in OA. Service helps me to practice reaching out and making phone calls, and I get to meet new OA members from all over.
• I’m never alone in doing service work; if I need help, I ask, which teaches me humility.

By keeping OA alive and thriving, I focus on what I can do to help those still suffering inside and outside our groups.

I enjoy taking on new challenges. It’s scary, and often I have no idea what I’m doing, but I tackle the job, guided by God and OA mentors who have gone before me in the service position. It feels good when I learn new things and grow.

Service gives me a lot of gratitude for my recovery, OA, and God.

It also helps me with being patient, with letting go and letting God.

I remember that God is in our groups and group conscience. I may not always get my way, and it’s okay because I’m learning to grow up emotionally.

As always, Tradition Twelve (“placing principles before personalities”) keeps me coming back to serve at all levels. It’s no mistake that there is a whole chapter in the Big Book on working with others. Service is slimming, but oh so much more. It still amazes me that OA members are not armwrestling to do service work at all levels.

I pray for the day that all OA members say “Yes” to service.

— Kim B., Racine, Wisconsin USA