I heard this story a long time ago. It made a difference to me in how I framed my service in the recovery community.
If I focus on all of the problems and suffering in the world on a large scale, I can get into overwhelm. How can I help “fix” this big problem? I can’t. It’s too big. So I give up.
This story helped me reframe how I looked at helping others:
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One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
The man said, “Son, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, "I made a difference for that one.”
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When I got sober, I wanted to graduate from this group of recovering people and “be normal” again. Ha ha. This WAS normal now for me. I didn’t want to be an alcoholic, I wanted to go change the world and make a BIG difference—God spoke to me and said, “This is right where I need you to be to make a difference for ME.”
So I answered the call. Starting with me. Right here. Get sober. Stay sober. Show others the way. Take the 12-steps. Help my fellow alcoholics still struggling to engage with a new community of people all trying to do the same thing. Teach them to pray and to talk with God.
As the 12th step states, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry the message to those who still suffer and practice these principles in all of our affairs.”
Making a difference for one person. One-day-at-a-time, one-moment-at-a-time, helping one-person-at-a-time…Today. Then tomorrow and the next. Until I get to see how they turn around and help another. I am blessed to be able to watch transformation in people just like it happened to me.
What a gift.
Know the way.
Go the way.
Show the way.
“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”
Psalm 25:4-5
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