SERVICE
Sept 13, from “Strengthening My Recovery” daily reader
“Service work is a key aspect of the ACA recovery program. Service is our way of giving back to ACA what was freely given to us by the fellowship.” BRB p. 348
“We were pressed into service as children. So giving service in ACA may mistakenly feel the same. But there is a critical distinction: our families did not allow us to choose to do service. However, in ACA we are asked if we wish to be of service.
The choice is ours. No guilt trips or manipulation. If we don’t want to do service, the members will still accept and love us. It may be that service is not something we are willing to do for a while because we are still working on ourselves. “First things first” we say, and others support that decision.
ACA gives us the room and time to grow into the wonderful human being we were meant to be. Somewhere along the way, though, we may begin to understand that service is a form of thank you – of giving back.
We can give back by doing service at the group level, the intergroup level and the world level. We all do service at the individual level every time we attend a meeting and share.
On this day, if I have grown to the point where I have authentic love to give to my fellow ACAs, I will give service from that space of love.”
My experience:
What is there to say about service, except there are varying forms of service that you will perform and not even know it until someone points it out to you. When I first came into the room and words touched me and I wept, I performed a service for someone. Someone in that room, who saw this strong man cry, needed “permission” to cry too. After a few sessions and I could share, very briefly, I performed a service as someone in the room needed to hear what I had to say. After a few more sessions and I could stay afterwards and fellowship with others, I was performing service as someone needed to reach out to me or needed me to reach out to them if for nothing more than for an “Al-Anon/ACA hug.” As I continued to stay and fellowship, I started to put the room back in order, moving tables and chairs back into place. I was performing service work as the space we use is a church and we need to put the space back to how the church needs it to be. When I really got my bearings I was able to reach out to a fellow traveler and ask if we could do some yellow book work together. Again I performed a service as this person was so happy that I reached out and we continue to see each other to discuss the program. I eventually was healed enough to take on a more traditional service role and become an officer of our meeting and became the literature person. As I write this I better understand that I have given and continue to give much back into this program, but I will never be able to give back more than the program has given me. “One Day At A Time.”
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