Grey Book Reflection
Everything that occurs in the course of N.A. service must be motivated by the desire to more successfully carry the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers.
Gray Book, p. v (Introduction, Third Paragraph)
The Primary Purpose of the N.A. Group is to carry the N.A. Message to the still suffering addict.
That's the whole reason we exist. For the member to carry the N.A. Message, we must have an N.A. Message to carry.
Being Of Service is one of the ways we can carry the N.A. Message. When we first come to Narcotics Anonymous, we are told that a Commitment will keep us coming back.
Our first Privilege of serving others occurs in our Home Group; as a result, we get to stay Clean. That's at the beginning of our Recovery. After being here for a while, our primary motive for Service will be to Serve others. We start to Share this Precious Gift with others.
Service is one way of giving away that which was so freely given to us. Our motive should be Love and Selfless Service. We have to ask ourselves; do we have Service based Recovery or do we have Recovery Based Service? Are we doing Service or are we Of Service? Service might keep us Clean, but are we Recovering? Are we using Service to take the place of Step work? Are we missing Meetings to do Service commitments in service committees? Are we holding to Service commitments past our rotation term because it keeps us Clean? Is that what we mean by Selfless Service? Are we truly motivated to carry the Message because we Care for the suffering addict, or for our own selfish motives?
These are the questions we should be asking ourselves to determine if our motives have motives. Goodwill is exemplified by doing the right thing for the right reason. Doing Service to stay Clean is doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Our Service to N.A. should be pure and not motivated by selfishness, money, power or prestige. As long as we keep our Primary Purpose up front, we will reach addicts and save Lives.
We will check our motives for doing Service. We will be Of Service. We will make sure that our Service is Recovery Based, and not Service based Recovery.