Humility in action
“If we are hurting, and most of us do from time to time, we learn to ask for help.”
Basic Text, p.80
Sometimes recovery gets downright difficult. It can be even more difficult to get
humble enough to ask for help. We think, “I have all this time clean. I should be
better than this!” But the reality of recovery is simple: whether we have thirty days
or thirty years clean, we must be willing to ask for help when we need it.
Humility is a common theme in our Twelve Steps. The program of Narcotics
Anonymous is not about keeping up appearances. Instead, the program helps us get
the most from our recovery. We must be willing to lay bare our difficulties if we
expect to find solutions to problems that rise in our lives.
There’s an old expression sometimes heard in Narcotics Anonymous: We can’t save
our face and our ass at the same time. It isn’t easy to share in a meeting when we
have a number of years clean only to dissolve into tears because life on life’s terms
has made us realize our powerlessness. But when the meeting ends and another
member comes up and says, “You know, I really needed to hear what you had to
say,” we know that there is a God working in our lives.
The taste of humility is never bitter. The rewards of humbling ourselves by asking for
help sweetens our recovery.
Just for today: If I need help, I will ask for it. I will put humility into action in my life.