We are a good lot. I've been thinking about the times I've been through rehab (voluntary) and watched people, including myself, walk through the doors in a state of selfish conceit/deceit and in the "poor me" state of being. After a few days of withdrawel there's a change that takes place. A caring, thinking and empathetic human being emerges. In the clarity of sobriety people sense each others needs and are more than willing to go out of their way to help others, though they've nothing to offer but consolation and empathy from personal experience. A good part of the AA recovery deals with being in-service. What does it mean for those who think they have nothing to offer? Try this:
There are those who give little of the much which they have-and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is thier reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtly breathes it fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
Kahlil Gibran
Good morning all...Tim
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"We posess the eyes through which the universe gazes with wonder upon its own majesty."
I think my giving fluctuates between giving out of joy or compassion, giving to change my own focus, and then sometimes, I give because I know I HAVE TO, in order to keep it. I am only human and sometimes I do not want to give. But I have a program that requires it for my own growth and continued abstinence. And I too believe God is behind all of these forms of giving.
