The contrast of destructive self-centeredness in active addiction with the healthy lifestyle of supporting one another in recovery is clearly expressed in Promise 7 of AA: We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Learning and growing in our recovery, sharing our experience, strength, and hope are ways we fulfill this principle. Long before this was brought to the attention of recovering alcoholics, God told His believers this was the way to live.
Don’t just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and in what they are doing. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Philippians 2:4 TLB, Colossians 3:16 ESV)
We help each other by giving time and attention to one another. One of the greatest gifts we can give is a listening ear and time for someone to get whatever is troubling them off their chest and out into the open. We need to slow down and pay attention to others around us, lending a helping hand as needed rather than merrily going along doing our own thing. Even though it is not always convenient, and it is often hard work, there is something very satisfying about caring for others in a way that strengthens and builds them up.
When we carry the message, as Step 12 encourages us to do, we make ourselves vulnerable as we share our own struggles related to the journey of getting to know God and finding sobriety. By sharing our experience, we provide common ground for someone to find themselves at a starting point for moving ahead. This “gaining interest in others” is so important that when Jesus boiled down all the teaching of the Scriptures into two commandments, this was one of them. The success of our life and our recovery depend on living our lives this way.
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NLT)
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You put your own interests aside and left heaven to come here to die for my sins. Help me to be more like You and become more interested in others and less self-focused. Amen
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