"Into Your Hands..."
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Something anonymous that I came across (written by someone else)... Thought I'd share...
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If God Spoke To AA He Might Have Said...
Into your weak and feeble hands I have entrusted a power beyond your estimate. To you has been given that which has been denied the most learned of your fellows. Not to scientists or statesmen, not to wives or mothers, not even to my priests and ministers have I given this gift of healing other alcoholics which I entrust to you.
It must be used unselfishly. It carries with it a grave responsibility. No day can be too long, no demands upon your time can be too urgent, no case too pitiable, no task too hard, no effort too great. It must be with tolerance, for I have restricted its application to no race, no creed and no denomination.
Personal criticism you must expect. Lack of appreciation will be common. Ridicule will be your lot. Your motives will be misjudged. Success will not always attend your efforts in the work with other alcoholics. You must be prepared for adversity, for what men call adversity is the ladder you must use to ascend the rungs, progressing towards spiritual perfection.
I shall not exact of you beyond your capabilities.
You are not selected because of exceptional talents. Be careful always, if success attends your efforts, not to ascribe to personal superiority that to which you can lay claim on only by virtue of My Gift. If I had wanted learned men to accomplish this mission, the power would be entrusted to the physician and scientist. If I had wanted eloquent men there would have been many eager for the assignment, for talk is the most easily used of all the talents with which I have endowed mankind. If I wanted scholarly men, the world is filled with better qualified than you who would have been available.
You were selected because you have been available. You were selected because you have been outcasts of the world, as your long experience as a drunkard has made, or should make you, humbly alert to the cries of distress that come from the lonely hearts of alcoholics everywhere.
Keep ever in mind the admission that you made on the day of your profession of AA -- namely, that you are powerless, and that it was only your willingness to turn your life and will into My keeping that relief came to you.
Think not that because you have been dry one year, or two years, or ten years, that it is the result of your unaided efforts. The help which has been keeping you normal will keep you so just as long as you live this program which I have mapped out for you.
Beware of the pride that comes from growth, the power of numbers and invidious comparisons between yourselves, or your organization with other organizations whose success depends on numbers, money and position. These material things are no part of your creed. The success of material organization comes from the pooling of joint assets. Your success comes from the union of mutual liabilities.
Appeal for membership in material organizations is based upon a boastful recital of their accomplishments. Membeship in yours in based on the humble admission of weakness. The motto of succesful commercial enterprise is "he profits most who serves best". The wealth of material organizations, when they take the inventory, is measured by what they have left. Yours is measured, when you take the moral inventory, by what you have given.
Keep well this power which I have entrusted to you. Use it abundantly, with humility, perserverance and compassion, knowing that I am guiding you. Your past life has been but a training period toward this end, and a reminder of your need for Me to be central to your life. My work begins with each new day of reprieve which I grant to you.
Use this Gift well.