Giving It Away;
Recovery’s Greatest Gift
Recovery is full of so many gifts. But perhaps recovery's greatest gift is found in giving it away. Where else in life can you have your cake and eat it too? Where else in life can you keep what you have by giving it away? The answer lies in being a beacon of hope for the hopeless and watching that transformation take place in another as it took place in you.
When I was new to recovery; I was incapable of noticing the profound changes taking place in my life. I may have noticed certain "ah-hah" moments with my sponsor or when something said in a meeting really clicked with me. Even though I wasn't drinking or using drugs, I still couldn't see the miracle happening in me as others did.
Now that I'm working with others in recovery, I get to re-experience that transformation in me over and over again. It's an experience like no other and one I highly recommend. Nothing insures my continued recovery like working with others. It's how I remain teachable. It's how I stay out of my self. It's how I avoid "graduating" from recovery. It's how I stay in the present (the gift).
When I was first approached by someone seeking a sponsor, I was both flattered and fearful. That's what happens when my ego gets involved. I asked my sponsor what he thought and he politely pointed out, "Not just yet, my friend. You can't give away what you don't have." He was referring to the fact that I had not yet completed all 12 steps. So he encouraged me to help the newcomer find another sponsor and to continue with my other service commitments while working on my steps.
So I did. And it wasn't much later that someone again approached me with the sponsorship question. This time my sponsor gave me the green light and one crucial piece of insight. He reminded me that I alone didn't have the power to make someone stop drinking or using drugs. What I had to give was my willingness to share with someone what worked for me.
Since "officially" completing my step work, I've worked with others that continue to recover and others that continue to relapse. Ironically, both situations enhance and re-enforce my recovery. I like the way one old timer put it in perspective when he said, "I have a 100% success record when it comes to sponsorship... I'm still sober."
Sponsorship is but one way we experience recovery's greatest gift. We don't really always know who, what, where, when, how, or why our recovery is going to impact someone. It may be in the way we say something or it may just be in the way we listen. Either way, the therapeutic value of one person in recovery helping another is unparalleled. It is a gift that grows larger, and spreads even wider as we pass on what was freely given to us.
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