There are all kinds of scoreboards in life. Money. Careers. Houses. Cars. Recognition. Success. The trouble starts when we carry that same scoreboard into our recovery.
How many sponsees do they have? How many years sober? Why do people always go to them? Why did they ask him to speak instead of me? Why does she seem to have it all together while I'm still struggling?
Pride wants us to believe recovery is a competition. We compare our recovery, our knowledge, our service work, and even our suffering. If we're ahead, we quietly pat ourselves on the back. If we're behind, we either get discouraged or start looking for flaws in the other person just to even the score.
Humility reminds us that God never asked us to be better than the next alcoholic. He simply asked us to stay close to Him and help the next person.
The miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous isn't that one person shines brighter than another. It's that broken people help broken people. Every person who stays sober is proof that this thing works. Their victory doesn't take anything away from ours—it reminds us that miracles are still happening.
Humility doesn't ask, "Where do I rank?" It asks, "What can I learn?" Sometimes the person God uses to teach us isn't the old-timer with forty years of sobriety. Sometimes it's the trembling newcomer who just walked through the doors and reminds us exactly why we came.
Can I learn something from someone who just walked through the doors?
