The "Big Book" devotes two chapters (five and six) to
the first eleven steps. The Twelfth Step gets a chapter
(chapter seven) of 15 pages all its own -- one which, in
comparison to the 31 pages that covered all the previous
steps, is disproportionately long. The significance of this
"imbalance" is made clear at the start of that seventh
chapter:
. . . nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking
as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when
other activities fail. (p. 89)
This is the major reason for the strong emphasis on this
Step; and, in fact, many of the "Big Book" personal stories
tell us that Bill W. and Dr. Bob lost no time in having the
new recruits in the program go out to "spread the word."
But what exactly constitutes "twelfth-step work"? What
might such work include?
Since the "Big Book" was written just two years after
Alcoholics Anonymous began and at a time when most people had
not even heard about us, its discussion of "twelfth-stepping"
emphasized the importance of bringing our message of hope to
those who were still actively suffering from the disease.
The classic A.A. images of twelfth-stepping -- going to
hospitals and talking to alcoholics who are drying out, or
going with another member to the home of a drinking person
who calls for help -- were thereby formed. Some have these
kinds of images in mind when they say that they are "not yet

2.

ready to do twelfth-step work" or that they are not
particularly suited to it.
Yet, to neglect twelfth step work is to ignore an
important tool for one's own recovery -- a tool that will
not only work "when other activities fail," but is also one
through which "life will take on new meaning." For everyone
in recovery -- and not just those who have the talent for
helping those still in active addiction -- what the Twelfth
Step might mean needs to be carefully considered.
My sponsor recently said to me that "recovery depends on
being of loving service to other people." What better
antidote for the alcoholic's "self-will run riot" than a life
in which obsession with self is replaced by loving concern
for others no less than for oneself? Sometimes, I have
distorted the idea of ours being a "selfish program" and have
made it instead into a "self-obsessed program"; though I may
not be drinking, I am at those times as self-willed as I was
during my drinking days. "Loving service" is my way of
fighting self-will. "Loving service" is, in the last
analysis, what the Twelfth Step is all about.
Working effectively with still-drinking persons or those
in very early recovery is not what all of us can do since it
often requires a special talent or a kind of strength which
we do not all have. It can be a wise policy to leave that
3.

type of work to others more suited to it. Yet, even if that
form of twelve-stepping is not what I can do, it is important
for me to recognize that it is only ONE form in which what
the Twelfth Step is about can be practiced. When I
understand that Step as pointing to the "spirit of loving
service" -- and not restricted to just one form of that
service -- then there is nothing to stop me from doing that
Step in some appropriate way.
How can the Twelfth Step can be practiced? Putting it
simply: any service to other alcoholics, and indeed to all
who need such service (for the Twelfth Step reminds us to
"practice these principles in ALL our affairs") constitutes
twelfth-step work. There is, however, one important
qualification: the work must be primarily motivated by the
love of others, rather than by gain, or by the desire to be
admired, or by some other self-seeking and self-centered
motive.
At a simple level, twelve-stepping can include helping
set up chairs for a meeting, or making coffee, or cleaning up
after the meeting has ended. It can mean going out of my way
to help others get to meetings, or volunteering at my group's
central office, or being on a service board or committee. It
can involve listening to someone who is troubled and sharing
with that person my own experience, strength, and hope; it
can include sponsoring someone, or simply passing up a
4.

television program I want to see in order to speak to a
person who asks for my help. Some people speak of the
importance to them of simply seeing the same faces at a
meeting day after day, week after week, month after month:
their very presence shows the effectiveness of our program of
recovery, and often inspires a person to go on, to hang on to
recovery, to stay with us and heal with us. In short: pretty
much any service, as long as it is rooted in genuine love of
others, falls within the spirit of the Twelfth Step.
Saint Francis of Assisi advised one of his brother monks
to live in a God-centered way: remember, said Francis, that
you might be the only Gospel that someone will ever read. In
a similar way, I might be the only "Big Book" another person
will ever read. To live in the spirit of the Twelfth Step is
to demonstrate the program in action; to live in loving
service of others is to find a new meaning for my life.

Jamie C.