THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT
Coming to terms with our disease, discovering a Higher Power we can trust with our lives, letting go of our defects and developing our ability to admit fault, we become much more than we were to begin with. Developing our character, growing spiritually and becoming a force for goodness in terms we can appreciate and understand makes us over into spiritual beings. Aware of our humble origins, we make jokes about sainthood and becoming gurus. Still, to some extent, as God chooses to use us, we become something like angelic. If we are really used as instruments of a loving, all-powerful God, how exactly would you put that into words? Perhaps that is the origin of our being called the Fellowship of the Spirit.
Many forms of belief exist when we contemplate what human beings believe in around the world and throughout time. Some reverence just the spirit and invisible and scorn the fleshly concerns of the material world. Others concentrate on form and outward observance without emphasis on the spiritual state of mind and being. Surely the answer is somewhere in the middle. But to satisfy language, it is helpful to think of the spirit of caring and sharing that attracted most of us to the Fellowship in the first place. Much of our way of life amounts to 'catching' a Spirit in our meetings and a Spirit in our involvement with other members that calms us, makes us feel free and allows us to go to work becoming better people any way we can. We all start out with our imperfections and we all work towards something better. This is Spirit we try to invoke when we are carrying our message. While surely all that we call 'The Fellowship' and 'The Program' started as a dream, there is a lot of evidence to indicate the power and force of out love. And the great thing is that we all play an indispensible part in the miracle. Which is to say, NA just wouldn't be the same without you and you and you.
******
The Fellowship of the Spirit is the name known only to a few of all the anonymous fellowships. This material may in time become authoratative but for now it is only exploratory. We hope that members who have pertinent information will come forward and give us what they know about this. It is true that all the members I have ever known have held a common idea or notion that there is one spirit that unites us all in NA. It may be that human beings are made to 'point' towards something like a common spirit and without it, we go nuts. I know the 'spirit' helps me all the time.
Going forward on faith is nothing new to us. We know that there is something loving, kind yet forceful and capable of giving us what we need to do what used to be impossible: stay clean on a daily basis. Long after initial recovery, we are empowered to renew our recovery each day. Furthermore, we are able to carry our message of hope and recovery to other addicts once they qualify for our program by showing up and expressing their desire to change. Each addict seeking recovery in NA is able, with only the support of a few other local members, to start a new recovery meeting.
There are incredible pitfalls along the way that do not occur when we respect and apply the NA Twelve Traditions. Anytime we avoid or violate the principles behind the Traditions, we will fall short of our goals. Almost by definition, we will not be able to see the err or our ways until later as the greater context unfolds around our actions. Fortunately, amends and cancel out most of our mistakes. The biggest mistake is to forget that our health and recovery come from our surrender and openness to the 'Spirit of Recovery' and that when we forget that simple truth, we stop getting the help we need. In a way, it may be attitudinal, like when we ask for help, we get help. When we don't, we don't. Duh
Knowing about the Fellowship of the Spirit has helped those who know about it to see the deeper truths of anonymous recovery: that we are all one in the Spirit and that identification with this great fact alleviates the need to correct others, judge and criticize others and spend much time in useless worry. Time and their own natural, God-given sincerity will take care of things we cannot know with precision. Obviously, there is a great source of unity in our hearts to have so many self-proclaimed members with so little coersion or force applied to keep them in line. This is most fortunate because the nature of most addicts is such that they would immediately rebell against any effort to impose belief or behaviour on them. Whereas, by simply trusting to the sincerity of their desire for recovery, all is made simple and possible for an incredible variety of people with all kinds of living problems. One thing we know, we are all blessed.
Reprinted from the
N.A. FELLOWSHIP USE ONLY
Copyright � December 1998
Victor Hugo Sewell, Jr.
N.A. Foundation Group
340 Woodstone Drive - Marietta, Georgia 30068
[email protected]
gratefully powered by ezweb.net
All rights reserved. This draft may be copied by members of Narcotics Anonymous for the purpose of writing input for future drafts, enhancing the recovery of NA members and for the general welfare of the Narcotics Anonymous Fellowship as a whole. The use of an individual name is simply a registration requirement of the Library of Congress and not a departure from the spirit or letter of the Pledge, Preface or Introduction of this book. Any reproduction by individuals or organizations outside the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous is prohibited. Any reproduction of this document for personal or corporate monetary gain is prohibited.
Last update June 6, 2001