Surrender is for everyone
“If after a period of time, we find ourselves in trouble with our recovery, we have
probably stopped doing one or more of the things that helped us in the earlier stages
of our recovery.”
Basic Text, p.92
Surrender is just for newcomers, right? Wrong!
After we’ve been around awhile, some of us succumb to a condition particular to
oldtimers. We think we know something about recovery, about God, about NA, about
ourselves-and we do. The problem is, we think we know enough, and we think that
merely knowing is enough. But it’s what we learn and what we do after we think we
know it all that really makes the difference.
Conceit and complacency can land us in deep trouble. When we find that “applying
the principles” on our own power just isn’t working, we can practice what worked for
us in the beginning: surrender. When we find we are still powerless, our lives again
unmanageable, we need to seek the care of a Power greater than ourselves. And
when we discover that self-therapy isn’t so therapeutic after all, we need to take
advantage of “the therapeutic value of one addict helping another.”
Just for today: I need guidance, support, and a Power beyond my own. I will go to a
meeting, reach out to a newcomer, call my sponsor, pray to my Higher Power-I will
do something that says, “I surrender.”