Episode Details

Early in sobriety, Sarah's sponsor gave her one AA assignment: help somebody before four o'clock. When four arrived, Sarah had done nothing because service was still the most baffling idea she had ever encountered.

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Sarah speaks on "Help Others," the final part of a three-week Big Book workshop built around trusting God, cleaning house, and working with others. She explains how selfishness and self-centeredness became most visible after she stopped drinking, why love alone cannot give another alcoholic the power they need, and how sponsorship helps someone establish their own connection with a higher power. After going through the Steps in a new way with her sponsor, Sarah found people unexpectedly flooding into her life and discovered that having her own house in order gave her both the experience and language to be useful. She talks about urgency with chronic relapsers, meeting sponsees where they are, laying the spiritual toolkit at someone's feet without forcing them to pick it up, and recognizing when she is working harder than the person asking for help. Through an overflowing pot of soup, a conversation about pickles, an impromptu Step workshop in Southern Illinois, and the decision to remain with a hurting friend instead of leaving for a meeting, Sarah expands service beyond formal AA commitments into work, school, family, and every ordinary interaction. Her message is that recovery becomes attractive when the principles leave the meeting room and turn a frightened, disconnected alcoholic into someone present, compassionate, and available to others.

Sarah L. from New York, NY speaking on the topic of Help Others at the Westfield Big Book Workshop of the Spiritual Awakenings Group in Westfield, NJ - February 5th 2012

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu