At treatment, they hammered home this thing about the spiritual toolkit. (I still laugh today the day one of my roomies left the house. He had a cane because of a withdrawal seizure, so our other roomie was helping him with his suitcase. The suitcase was extremely heavy, and upon remarking about why the case was so heavy, the other exclaimed "it's all the tools I picked up here")
I was worried sick that I didn't have a commitment (sacrilege!) and because of that I would drink again. Being too shy and introverted to raise my hand when it came time for that, I focused on the steps. And for a long time I still had the idea of the "toolkit" had to be all or nothing. If I wasn't calling 27 alcoholics a day, scrubbing church basement toilets and making a river of coffee, I would
surely relapse. I lamented this to my sponsor over and over again who said service doesn't have to be confined to the meetings - service is an overall giving of oneself to others and helping whenever and wherever we can. And in working the steps, and not the fellowship, I was able to connect to my HP and focus on making and keeping my connection with the Creator.
I do pass this on to the men I work with, and certainly do encourage them to have a homegroup, do service, talk to newcomers, etc. but step work first and foremost. I would rather they write inventory than trying to clean up cigarette butts. Sure, do both, but the BB is about step work and HP, not stacking chairs necessarily (and I love stacking chairs, btw - soothing)
Great topic.
