The Lamp Lighting Life

I am merciful. Here’s a short verse for the week to follow up last week’s triple-header 😁

You got this.

No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

Luke 11:33

What good will it do to keep quiet? Having found a way out of bondage, out of addiction, shouldn’t we be compelled to proclaim this to others?

Yes and no...but mostly yes.

The founders of AA as well as those in the earlier Oxford and Washingtonian groups all saw the wisdom in shared experience. To cling to sobriety, it becomes necessary to find fellowship with fellow sufferers in this common way out.

Indeed, sharing our experience with others in an effort to help them is at the core of 12-step work.

We share our experience, strength and hope with each other. By doing so, we encourage others in this new way of life and offer to walk with them.

Are these outdated methods? These organizations, after all, are old.

More recent experience through the pandemic has highlighted the central truths that even the Washingtonian movement of the 19th century discovered—the recovering alcoholic needs the conviviality and fellowship that comes from shared experience.

We need others. We need to be around them. We need to share our experiences with them.

And they need us.

In fact, shared hardship binds us together faster and more fully than anything.

But be cautious.

Share in meetings, seek the guidance of those who are farther along, but exercise restraint.

The last thing people near you need is another promise of a changed life. Time takes time, and for now focus on sharing your hope with the newcomer behind you.

God, show me when to speak and when to seek.