Many have heard this story, but it is worth repeating.
It revolves around an old man who goes for a walk on the beach after a big storm has passed. That day, the beach was littered with starfish. From a distance, he spotted a little boy. The boy seemed to be picking something up and throwing it back into the sea. The man could see that he was doing this over and over again. The man asked the boy what he was doing. The boy replied that he was throwing the starfish back into the ocean. He said that if they were left there on the beach, they would die when the sun got high. To this, the old man replied that there were thousands of starfish on the beach! “You won’t make much difference” he told him. The boy picked another starfish and threw it back into the sea. Smiling, he then turned and told the man, “I made a difference to that one!”
That is how I feel about service to my people in recovery. It keeps me sober.
There are so many people in the world who are suffering from alcoholism and addiction. If I think of that, I can get overwhelmed and feel like just giving up—it’s too big of a task. Like seeing all of the starfish laying there on the beach. In my own recovery, which I handle daily with the tools I have been given, I can only affect change in me, and possibly a few around me. If I reach out. Be there.
I can’t change the opioid epidemic, so many suffering from alcoholism, hopeless and homeless addicts on the street—but, what I can do is help the one who is suffering next to me in a meeting. A few days sober, they are in need of a hand to reach out, and ear to hear and and body to walk next to them. I can make a difference for them on that scale.
Before I got sober, I would often lament how I wasn’t really making a difference in my life or the lives of others. Little did I know, the difference I could make would involve me addressing my own alcohol problem—then showing others how I stayed sober today.
That little kid throwing the starfish back into the sea and making a difference for that one—is me. It can be you, too.
First, you need to show up sober.
Get out of your own head and help another.
Then—See the difference you can make.
Service—it changed my life. It can change yours.
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5:13-14
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