Our Unity, the bricks that we build our sobriety with, are held together by the mortar of Service.
 
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) as a fellowship has been providing support and solace to individuals struggling with alcohol addiction for nearly nine decades. At the heart of the AA program is the concept of service, a powerful force that not only aids in the recovery of individuals but also strengthens the fabric of the entire AA community. The men of Matt Talbot Group 113 realize just how powerful this force is and try to embrace it. For us, service is truly transformational.
As retreat brothers we use service as a Guiding Principle. It is deeply ingrained in the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions. In fact after just a quick reading of the Steps and Traditions service is blatantly obvious in four of the former and five of the later, yet it is truly interwoven and hidden in just about all the Steps and Traditions. The Fifth Tradition states that “each group has but one
primary purpose — to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers”, while the Twelfth Step encourages members to “carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” Service becomes a tangible expression of these principles. It’s service that makes the First Tradition possible, “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity,” our common welfare is held together by service to one another. It’s service that shows us the path to our Higher Power.
When many of us were new to recovery, service was the last thing on our minds for a plethora of reasons. However whether we were sent here by the court, an intervention or by our own desperation one common theme we seemed to share was self centeredness. We had spent years serving ourselves and our own ends, sometimes very successfully yet many times leading to unforeseen consequences and emotional wreckage. Many times, in our alcoholic thinking, we never identified or perceived the cause of this wreckage as our own self serving actions. We certainly didn’t want to serve others or see the point in how service would help us stay sober.
When our sponsors told us to be a “door greeter,” or the group’s “coffee maker,” or to empty the ashtrays, many of us didn’t realize that we were offering service work to our groups. Then someone would point out the profound fact that we were indeed serving others and we were shocked. All we were trying to do was stay sober, and we found we were! These little service tasks kept us coming back to a place where we were welcome. Service was making us a part of (unity) and it was an amazing feeling. After some time we increased our commitments and started chairing meetings and becoming group leaders and GSRs and so on. We found that these little (and some big) tasks made us happy and brought us together. We had all heard in meetings about “doing the next right thing,” and “Tuning it over,” and “God’s will,” but we had never really known how to do any of those things… It had been perplexing. Yet here we were, finding that as we were trying our best to serve others it naturally put us on the path of “Doing the next right thing,” and “Turning our will and our lives over the care of God, as we understood him.” The healing, the purpose, the community, the love, the sobriety; this is the Grace we received
from service!
With the transformation begun, we wanted more and jumped in deeper. Working the program with our sponsors showed us how to lead others through the program. We became sponsors ourselves, giving freely of our time. Sharing our experience, strength and hope with newcomers, we would be honest about alcoholism. Doing for others what was so freely done for us, without the thought for compensation was the antithesis of our thinking when we were actively in our addiction.
The brothers of Matt Talbot Group 113 extend this type of service to one another. We’ve all been there. We know that no matter how long you’ve been around, eventually life is going to throw a curve at you that you just can’t hit. We help one another, advise one another, reach out to one another, love one another… We serve one another and become brothers.