~ 2002 Form ~
"Sharing and caring is the active and passive
forms of love
that keeps us alive and allows God to use us as instruments."
N.A. Foundation
Group - Marietta - May 2000
Moreland, Georgia Edit October 2001
Sharing, as a spiritual principle, is what happens when we give what is needed to a fellow addict seeking recovery. Each member in his or her special way shares continuously from the beginning of recovery. What is shared is spiritual in nature. Caring is the follow through that takes place after sharing begins. Caring makes real our NA promise of freedom from active addiction to any addict who thoroughly applies our principles in their lives. Sharing is the moment something of spiritual importance takes place between two or more addicts with a desire for recovery. Caring is all we do to bring about such moments.
Anonymity is the absence of labeling. Naturally, personality change is enhanced by anonymity. Newcomers are welcomed regardless of their condition with the only requirement for membership being their desire to stop using, stay clean and live a new way of life. Few of us are comfortable judging the sincerity of a newcomer’s desire. A big part of what has been wrong with us is our terrific ability to cover up who and what we are from prying eyes and we retain this ability in recovery.
Far too often, the belief of one or two members in a persons desire has been the crucial factor in the recovery of a new member. Fortunately, it only takes one or two to carry our message initially. Part of the awakening we experience in our Twelfth Step in the extent to which the rest of our Twelve Steps are true. It is a subject of fascination among us that the Steps continue to take on more meaning as we grow. The application of these principles is in fact endless. The need for surrender, belief, inventory, confiding, letting go and making amends is built into a healthy life. Our inability to do these things is one measure of our illness.
Among all our principles, we find ideas like inclusiveness, openness, trust, helpfulness, selfless giving, positive concern for others and similar key ideas that help offset our tendency to be and do the opposite thing as addicts. It is our self-destructiveness to oppose these principles that bring peace and happiness to all who are willing. These words come to constitute a special recovery language within NA. They have not been so much chosen as found to be useful and thereby gained currency in the recovery language of our program. It is a language born of deep, applied love and commitment that has endured great pain and hardship. There comes a time when we become aware that our program results from a huge amount of deliberate, consistent effort on the part of all of our members worldwide.
As the hours of scheduled meetings approaches, how many thousands of automobiles are started for the express purpose of attending an NA meeting? How many light switches are thrown and chairs set up around tables to seat our multitude? How many hours do members share in a day's time? A dramatic change comes to members exposed to the greater NA beyond the boundaries of their local Fellowship.
We each finally find out in our own way, that Narcotics Anonymous is the accumulation of what addicts with a desire for recovery really do to stay clean and grow spiritually. Many ideas, experiments, changes, conflicts, polarization and some failures go into producing our Program on a daily basis.
All are filtered through the tests of application. If they work and prove useful, they extend our ability to apply the NA program in some way. If not, our members simply move on, leaving behind what does not work. With our emphasis on sharing and caring, it is a wonder that we have time and energy left over for a life of our own! For clarity, let it be stated that our needs are met first: food, shelter, clothing and solvency. Time may be taken from these things in an emergency yet we find we must go right back to them to keep our own house in order.
The needs of our loved ones must reasonably come in this first category. What is left over after these living requirements are met is shared out where we find the opportunity to give selflessly without doing harm to those we would help. Naturally, some sharing goes on even if our own existence is restricted or even marginal. The vast majority of ways we share have nothing to do with the material world. Further, it is the nature of a loving God to be generous and we often come to reflect this calm and trust.
Spiritual principles can seem tenuous or wishy-washy to those who have little experience with them. In reality, it may be a tough hold on reality that makes an otherwise obnoxious businessperson successful. This person may also be a great giver in secret. Spiritual principles are a lot more real than the rationales we used to justify our using. The hard fact is that many of the doors closed to us will only yield to us as we learn to apply spiritual principles in our lives.
How often have we seen a member in the midst of a glowing recovery give themselves over to greed, lust, pride, avarice, envy, hatred and anger? They may convincingly justify their actions however they all run into obstacles that will not let them pass. Nor can they knock aside the obstacles by applying more force of convincing others of the correctness of their positions and actions. A losing setup is a losing setup.
We are stuck until we surrender to our powerlessness in the case at hand and again seek to apply the principles that have worked so well for them in other areas of their lives. Bearing these spiritual principles in mind constantly exhibits an awakened spirit. In times of hardship, we can sit back in silent wonder at the beauty of our lives and the wonderful people whose company we enjoy. Whatever our problem, we can find ways to endure without making things worse than they are already. In each instance, we will find some element of fighting a losing battle.
Each time we are able to discover just one more area wherein we lack surrender. When we surrender to the truth we find in the situation, we grow a little freer. Bear in mind that this spiritual surrender is a way in which we align ourselves with powerful forces that will work for us. It is part of life on life's terms. It is neither defeat nor an end to our pursuit of happiness. In fact, it is the way we find happiness.
Spiritual reality cannot help the way it is. If it didn't exist, we'd have no way out. The distortions brought on by our disease produces defects that arrest our growth. Most obstacles are simple things or things that would have been simple were we not addicts.
Perhaps when the time came in our lives for us to learn a certain thing, we were prevented from getting a clear picture or sometimes any picture at all! The wonderful thing is that through recovery we can regain what has been lost to us along the way.
To complete the process of our recovery, we gain the ability to do for others what was once done for us when we first sought recovery. We can each remember the patience and love that kept us coming back in the beginning. Now, awakened and based in principles, we can carry the message of hope and recovery.
This is as crucial for someone working their Twelfth Step as studying and discussing the disease concept was for us in the beginning. We can't stay clean without it much less aspire to spiritual growth.
The beauty of anonymity is that it acknowledges our Higher Power as the primary force acting in our lives. Our personality is still there however; the idea that we have to run the show is diluted by our experience. When the ego is set aside and the spirit within each of us is allowed to come out unaffected by personal desire, we can experience miracles.
There is no way to get a better feel for our service structure than to envision a fellowship who cares and who has achieved comfort with their personal limitations. Ones who have the ability to ask for help as well as pool talents, ideas and know how, without selfishness involving a sick need for ego support.
In other words, when we pray and aspire spiritually to do our best, we can achieve and maintain it. There can be no doubt that we have to earn our stripes here and acknowledge both aspects of our human potential for assertiveness and submission. Persons who have the idea that they are going to `personally' make their marks in service to NA entitle themselves to make every dumb, unnecessary mistake repeating exactly the errors of those who have gone before. There is no doubt that this will happen but God let’s us grow beyond it into the clear open spirit of goodwill and sensibility in service.
There are many ways to become wise in these things. We can reach, study and communicate among ourselves and dedicate ourselves to the great task of providing from within the kind of spiritual greatness that will allow our fellowship to endure.
While the gains and losses of the 1980's are evident to all students of NA history, we can gain from it specific knowledge of what to do and what to avoid. Some of the lessons learned from that era are that good, clean, open communication cuts down on rumors and gossip. Hiring outsiders to tell us what to do is unhealthy and gets poor results. Testing every idea and suggestion against our own innate spiritual voice helps guide us when we explore untried ideas. Respect for what works in NA - openness of information and participation - is the key to the future. Solutions arrived at which involve spiritual desires and visions that are capable of moving our people inwardly will endure long after quick fix remedies and expedient measures have floundered and passed away.
Experienced, informed old-timers exist today as never before. How dare we knuckle under to games of money, property and prestige! Think, pray, begin to work again towards solutions. The only thing that makes some of the difficulties palatable is the notion that some of us will be able to find a way to make it better if we are sincere enough to be around when the dust settles. This is not a movie production - this is the real thing. If you are now in service and see problems, pray to be a part of the solution and go forward.
Perhaps, the future is just beginning for us. There is always a way to go forward with faith. As our predecessors learned, if we are in spiritual pain or agony and seek the spiritual option, we can go inside ourselves and contemplate all that has come to us through recovery. We can recall the other times we have felt heartbroken and like it wasn't worth going forward, only to find that we had separated from old fantasies and ego problems that kept us from going on cleanly.
[5.10.02]
persons have visited this site since May 10, 2002
Reprinted from the
N.A. FELLOWSHIP USE ONLY
Copyright � December 1998
Victor Hugo Sewell, Jr.
N.A. Foundation Group
673 Park Drive - Atlanta, Georgia 30306
[email protected]
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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 December 18, 2002