I’ve heard some version of this countless times in Alcoholics Anonymous: “I just need to accept it.” And sometimes that is exactly right. I need to accept that I cannot control another person. I need to accept that the past has already happened. I need to accept that people may not behave the way I think they …

I’ve heard some version of this from newcomer sponsees more times than I can count: “I put down the bottle. I’m praying every day. I’m going to meetings. I’m calling you. Why don’t I feel better? Why isn’t my life getting better? And why am I not farther along than some of these other people?” It’s a fair …

Hidden in Plain Sight I was in a Big Book study tonight, reading “The Family Afterward,” when another member pointed out something I had never really seen. I’ve read this passage a thousand times. Okay, maybe not a thousand. But enough times that I thought I knew what was there. That’s what happens when I study the …

A word before I begin: This post is not about trying to tell anybody how to sponsor another alcoholic. If anything, it is an invitation for those of us who sponsor, myself included, to occasionally take a look at how we sponsor, why we sponsor the way we do, and where some of our ideas about …

There is a strange thing that can happen in Alcoholics Anonymous when you’ve been sober for a long time. People stop asking if you’re okay. I understand why. You’ve been around. You know the Steps. You’ve sponsored people. You’ve probably held service positions, chaired meetings, made coffee, spoken at conventions, attended funerals, celebrated anniversaries, watched people come …

Last night I was sitting in my home group when one of our members shared something that kind of made my head explode. You know those moments in an AA meeting when somebody says something and you immediately think: Wait. What did she just say? This was one of those moments. She was talking about the …

I don’t particularly like failing. I don’t like being wrong. I don’t like discovering that I’ve hurt somebody. I don’t like having to admit that something I was absolutely certain about turned out to be absolutely wrong. I don’t like rejection. I don’t like finding out that despite my best efforts, something simply didn’t work. …

“Okay, God… I’m available.” Sometimes somebody says something so simple that it just stops you. That happened to me yesterday. I had the opportunity to do some service work with another spiritual organization I’m involved with. More than twenty volunteers took a Dinner and Game Night to a local assisted living community. There was food, …

Ok, fasten your seatbelts. This is gonna be a bumpy ride for some of you. And yes, I’m gonna go there. There is a word in the Big Book that can make some people in an A.A. meeting uncomfortable. We talked about it tonight in my home group when reading page 29 in Into Action. …