keithj

When I approached my first sponsor, it was out of the blue. He was a guy that had reached out to me months before because he could see I was dying, despite me always saying I was fine. I called him up, had to remind him who I was.

I didn't like the guy much. He was one of those book thumpers. But he talked about a spiritual awakening and how to get it. He talked about the hopelessness of alcoholism and the spiritual solution to it. I knew that he knew how to work the program, and I was convinced that I needed it.

He made me one promise when we started working together, and that was to always tell me the truth, whether I wanted to hear it or not. I promised him I would be honest instead of telling him what I thought he wanted to hear.

I'm very opinionated about sponsors these days, bark. I think the majority of people sitting in a room of AA, regardless of how much sober time they have, have very little business sponsoring another through the 12 steps. The requirements for a good sponsor is that they have had a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps, and they can carry that message to you. Find somebody that knows the Big Book, and sticks to the program outlines in that book and not their own program.