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Made a Decision

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               Carrying the message is our job! 

What does it mean to carry the message?

It means a lot more than just showing up at a meeting from time to time.

It means being ready to help the still suffering alcoholic at every opportunity - even when it's inconvenient for us. 

We accept this responsibility for three reasons:

(1) It keeps us sober. (2) It is the basic service the AA Fellowship offers others.

 (3) It will bring us joy beyond anything we have ever known.

AA is more than a bunch of principles learned from dusty books. We are a society of

action. We carry the message so that we may ourselves grow and change - and we

carry the message so that others might live.

We do what it takes - whatever it takes - to help those still suffering from our cunning,

baffling and powerful disease.

. We go with more seasoned members on 12-Step Calls; 

. We work the steps and share the steps with others in sponsorship;

. We meet our AA friends for coffee when they need us; 

. We make our financial contributions at meetings or online; 

. We have a home group and we're then whenever they meet; 

. We do service in our home group - from making the tea or coffee to holding office;

 . We help with group workshops and local AA conventions; 

. We Do-the-Doing!

All the above - and much more - make up AA's Third Legacy of Service. 

On page 77 in our Big Book is states: 

Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us.

And, of course, our primary purpose is to stay sober

and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

Those of us who are business or social minded can serve at AA's highest levels, including in our

intergroup offices; doing phone service to connect troubled drinkers with information

about AA; carrying our message into schools and prisons; working on AA committees;

and serving as delegates and trustees.

Our opportunities to be of service to AA  are limitless.

We can invite our doctor and nurses to our open meetings so they can see AA in action

first hand; we can leave AA brochures at our local clinic;

we can tell our medical friends we are a resource and will be happy to share our

experience, strength and hope with any of their patients having a problem with alcohol.

We can talk with our children about addiction. What it is and how it often shows up in

families. We can let them know there will be strong societal pressure from their peers

to drink, but they don't have to drink if they choose not to. We can let them know that

alcohol is one of the five leading causes of death in young people. 

And we can accept that all our information might not make a damned bit of difference in the choices our children later make regarding drinking. But at least they will have good

information and they will know that AA is in place for anyone who needs it at any time.

At AA's International Convention in St. Louis, Missouri in 1955 the members saw a banner overhead carrying a new symbol for AA - a circle enclosed in a triangle.

The circle represented AA as a worldwide fellowship and the three sides of the triangle represented Recovery, Unity, and Service - our three legacies.

(It is also interesting to know our symbol has elsewhere been used since antiquity as a

means of warding off evil spirits.)

My journey in AA has been one of service because, like it or not, I was put to work at my very first meeting when asked to put AA brochures and ashtrays (usual in those days) on all

the tables in the room.

Much later in my recovery I amused my Higher Power by asking to be shown my real

purpose in life. The reply was: "Help the still suffering alcoholic."

My ongoing response to that was, "Yeah, yeah, I get all that, but what is my real purpose

in life?"

 

HP's reply remained the same until finally the fog lifted and I realized my primary purpose

in life is truly to help others suffering from alcoholism. To do so requires me to live a life

based on AA's principles (to the best of my ability) in order to be fit for purpose for that task.

Alcoholics have been carrying our message to still suffering alcoholics for almost 90 years.

I'm nearly 80 years old myself and know first hand that older members of my own family

died of our disease because there was no AA around to help them recover. 

I'm fairly certain that was probably also true within your own family around the time of your grandparents, great-grandparents or great-great grandparents. 

I share that thought because in the great scheme of things in world history, AA hasn't been

with us all that long.

 Consider where YOU would be right now without it! 

Now consider what you can do for AA right now - TODAY.