We have a message of hope to convey. It is both our gift and our obligation.
Living Clean, Chapter 2, “Contact with Others”
After coming to NA for a while, most of us at some point hear this question from family or friends: “How long do you have to keep going to these meetings?” We may even have wondered the same thing ourselves. And then we are fortunate to see a mentee, who is in the middle of Step Two, remaining open to the idea of staying clean, just for today – for the rest of their life.
One of the first gifts most of us receive in NA is hope, and it is what we continue to pass on to newcomers even as many other gifts gather around us. NA promises only freedom from active addiction. For most of us, that freedom usually enables us to achieve much more—restored relationships, self-esteem, employment, confidence, the ability to love and be loved, financial security. As our lives, hearts, bank accounts, and bellies become fuller, we may find that we show up to meetings a little less regularly. In some cases, we may even feel that life is so good that we don’t even need meetings.
We say it over and over again: “We can only keep what we have by giving it away.” The more regularly we share our experience with others, the more regularly we are reminded of the hope we found in NA. One member shared, “I need to tell a lot of newcomers what worked for me when my ass was on fire, so that when I start smelling smoke again, someone will be here to remind me how to put it out.”.
Our first dose of hope was about staying clean, and we saw many other hopes come true as we stayed clean and worked the Steps. We owe it to ourselves and to NA to share our hope with other addicts. We share how we overcome our difficulties and how we achieve our successes. We share not only to give them a little hope, but also to maintain a little hope ourselves.
To keep my hope fresh, I will continue to share how I live clean today. I share my hope freely with others, knowing that I always have somewhere to go when I need someone to share hope with me.
