How has participating in service, group conscience, or supporting A.A. beyond your home group helped you better understand your responsibility to A.A. as a whole?
As part of my personal walk in AA, I was quickly able to establish a very strong, focused and resolved connection to my HP who I know fundamentally got, an kept me sober long enough to get me here so that you could give me some tools to not only stay sober, but to stay connected, grow and mature rooted in some sustainable principles-not rules, dogma or expectations.
My first go at life I wasn't provided with any real foundation, armour, or instruction set- so being launched out like that will turn some into "survivors" who solely rely upon themselves and their maladjusted ways, and perceptions, of how to"do life" which systematically infects others to a degree I never considered before because I was that inconsiderate, but didn't think so...LOL!! My way was so exhausting that the only relief I could find from living life on my terms was by drinking-and then a whole new set of problems came from that; in fact, pretty much every way I sought relief backfired, or just made my life harder.
Tired of running and justifying, I finally came to a point where I was somewhat teachable. Who better to teach me than a bunch of women, collectively, who understood the torment I was experiencing and beat it?? You weren't getting paid and you wanted nothing from me which made absolutely zero sense to my "every man for themselves" mind set that I had grown up in, got drunk in and ultimately made abandoned and alone by.
So when I got back on my feet and started to walk, I developed a pretty hard core case of "ZEAL" for the Lord, that I was kinda like-"I'm good...I don't need do service commitments, participate in business or group conscious, because it's just me and the Lord!! So again, see how quickly the ego can even use my newly developing love for God as an "in" to keep me separate from the group to indulge in my uniqueness.
Fortunately I was still listening and I had heard the cautionary tales of those who recover and just go to the church thing and relapse because they forgot their primary purpose for God getting them sober. My primary purpose is not to fall on my face before the Lord in frantic worship- my primary purpose is to fit myself to be of service to God and the people around me in the trenches of what I know.
I know firsthand what it's like to wake up so hungover that you want to die-not just because of the pain and humiliation of the self imposed sickness, but because I knew I would have to do it again even though I didn't didn't want to. Not many people understand the true meaning of being powerless over the compulsion to self-destruct, so how selfish, self centered and self seeking would it be for me to just bail on AA, the last place that would have me by the way, just because I found Jesus?? Really, is that what Jesus would do??
I only recently have fully committed to AA and in service again, business and group conscious stuff too, because I found that talking the talk is not walking the walk. I also needed to work through some issues with working with others on that level-being a part of-not in charge of-and maturely responding to things that do not turn out my way-as well as some residual effects from school girl bully things that were still deeply interwoven but have since been removed as a direct result of facing my fears and serving on this level.
So while we are individually valued and unique, we learn here that we do not need to be the center of attention or overachiever to stand out using the antics that once got us drunk just to feed our egos-but instead, we get to be apart of, mature, and learn to be grateful for others and their specific talents or strengths that add to the group collective so that "I" don't have to do it all myself (lol) and then run all together because I couldn't keep up with the expectations I had put upon myself to perform and get everyone to think I could do it all to cement in that I was valuable.
If I know I am valuable to God already then I do not run myself ragged to get validation from anyone else, and THAT is priceless because it takes the pressure off me to perform, and pressure off them to feed my ego. We are building spiritual muscles in AA, not egos!