N.A.

Just for Today

Daily Meditation
February 17, 2024
Carrying the message, not the addict
Page 49

"They can be analysed, counselled, reasoned with, prayed over, threatened, beaten,
or locked up, but they will not stop until they want to stop."

Basic Text, p. 65

Perhaps one of the most difficult truths we must face in our recovery is that we are
as powerless over another's addiction as we are over our own. We may think that
because we've had a spiritual awakening in our own lives we should be able to
persuade another addict to find recovery. But there are limits to what we can do to
help another addict.
We cannot force them to stop using. We cannot give them the results of the steps or
grow for them. We cannot take away their loneliness or their pain. There is nothing
we can say to convince a scared addict to surrender the familiar misery of addiction
for the frightening uncertainty of recovery. We cannot jump inside other peoples'
skins, shift their goals, or decide for them what is best for them.
However, if we refuse to try to exert this power over another's addiction, we may
help them. They may grow if we allow them to face reality, painful though it may be.
They may become more productive, by their own definition, as long as we don't try
and do it for them. They can become the authority on their own lives, provided we
are only authorities on our own. If we can accept all this, we can become what we
were meant to be - carriers of the message, not the addict.

Just for Today: I will accept that I am powerless not only over my own addiction but
also over everyone else's. I will carry the message, not the addict.
Basic Text, p. 65
Tradition Three
“The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using.”
This tradition is important for both the individual and the group. Desire is the key
word; desire is the basis of our recovery. In our stories and in our experience of
trying to carry the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers, one painful
fact of life has emerged again and again. An addict who does not want to stop using
will not stop using. They can be analysed, counselled, reasoned with, prayed over,
threatened, beaten, or locked up, but they will not stop until they want to stop. The
only thing we ask of our members is that they have this desire. Without it they are
doomed, but with it miracles will happen.
Desire is our only requirement. Addiction does not discriminate. This tradition is to
ensure that any addict, regardless of their DOC, race, religious beliefs, sex, sexual
preference, or financial condition is free to practice the AA/NA way of life. With “… a
desire to stop using” as the only requirement for membership, one addict is never
superior to another. All addicted persons are welcome and equal in obtaining the
relief that they are seeking from their addiction; every addict can recover in this
program on an equal basis. This tradition guarantees our freedom to recover.
Membership in our Fellowship is not automatic when someone walks in the door or
when the newcomer decides to stop. The decision to become a part of our
Fellowship rests with the individual. Any addict who has a desire to stop using can
become a member of NA/AA. We are addicts, and our problem is addiction.
The choice of membership rests with the individual. We feel that the ideal state for
our Fellowship exists when addicts can come freely and openly to an NA/AA
meeting, whenever and wherever they choose, and leave just as freely. We realize
that recovery is a reality and that life without drugs is better than we ever imagined.
We open our doors to other addicts, hoping that they can find what we have found.
But we know that only those who have a desire to stop using and want what we
have to offer will join us in our way of life.
Alcoholics Anonymous
From the book Daily Reflections
THE LOVE IN THEIR EYES
February 17
Some of us won't believe in God, others can't, and still others who do believe that
God exists have no faith whatever He will perform this miracle.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 25

It was the changes I saw in the new people who came into the Fellowship that
helped me lose my fear, and change my negative attitude to a positive one. I could
see the love in their eyes and I was impressed by how much their "One Day at a
Time" sobriety meant to them. They had looked squarely at Step Two and came to
believe that a power greater than themselves was restoring them to sanity. That
gave me faith in the Fellowship, and hope that it could work for me too. I found that
God was a loving God, not that punishing God I feared before coming to A.A. I also
found that He had been with me during all those times I had been in trouble before I
came to A.A. I know today that He was the one who led me to A.A. and that I am a
miracle.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 25

Step Two
“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
THE moment they read Step Two, most A.A. newcomers are confronted with a
dilemma, sometimes a serious one. How often have we heard them cry out, “Look
what you people have done to us! You have convinced us that we are alcoholics
and that our lives are unmanageable. Having reduced us to a state of absolute
helplessness, you now declare that none but a Higher Power can remove our
obsession. Some of us won't believe in God, others can't, and still others who do
believe that God exists have no faith whatever He will perform this miracle. Yes,
you've got us over the barrel, all right—but where do we go from here?”
Let's look first at the case of the one who says he won't believe—the belligerent one.
He is in a state of mind which can be described only as savage. His whole
philosophy of life, in which he so gloried, is threatened. It's bad enough, he thinks, to
admit alcohol has him down for keeps. But now, still smarting from that admission,
he is faced with something really impossible. How he does cherish the thought that
man, risen so majestically from a single cell in the primordial ooze, is the spearhead
of evolution and therefore the only god that his universe knows! Must he renounce
all this to save himself?
At this juncture, his A.A, sponsor usually laughs. This, the newcomer thinks, is just
about the last straw. This is the beginning of the end. And so it is: the beginning of
the end of his old life, and the beginning of his emergence into a new one. His
sponsor probably says, “Take it easy. The hoop you have to jump through is a lot
wider than you think. At least I've found it so. So did a friend of mine who was a one-
time vice-president of the American Atheist Society, but he got through with room to
spare.”
“Well,” says the newcomer, “I know you're telling me the truth. It's no doubt a fact
that A.A, is full of people who once believed as I do. But just how, in these
circumstances, does a fellow 'take it easy'? That's what I want to know.”
“That,” agrees the sponsor, “is a very good question indeed. I think I can tell you
exactly how to relax. You won't have to work at it very hard, either. Listen, if you will,
to these three statements. First, Alcoholics Anonymous does not demand that you
believe anything. All of its Twelve Steps are but suggestions. Second, to get sober
and to stay sober, you don't have to swallow all of Step Two right now. Looking
back, I find that I took it piecemeal myself. Third, all you really need is a truly open
mind. Just resign from the debating society and quit bothering yourself with such
deep questions as whether it was the hen or the egg that came first. Again I say, all
you need is the open mind.”
The sponsor continues, “Take, for example, my own case. I had a scientific
schooling. Naturally I respected, venerated, even worshiped science. As a matter of
fact, I still do—all except the worship part. Time after time, my instructors held up to
me the basic principle of all scientific progress: search and research, again and
again, always with the open mind. When I first looked at A.A., my reaction was just
like yours. This A.A, business, I thought, is totally unscientific. This I can't swallow. I
simply won't consider such nonsense.
“Then I woke up. I had to admit that A.A, showed results, prodigious results. I saw
that my attitude regarding these had been anything but scientific. It wasn't A.A, that
had the closed mind, it was me. The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see
and feel. Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I
can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater
than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had only to stop
fighting and practice the rest of A.A.'s program as enthusiastically as I could.