“Our primary purpose is to carry our message to the marijuana addict who still suffers.”

– Life with Hope, second edition, page 82

When I first joined MA, I was badly in need of recovery, but there were many aspects of my life that were also sorely lacking. My spiritual and emotional life was a foreign, mostly unexplored landscape; but my social life was also in shambles, and my finances were a mess. As I grew along spiritual lines, I attended fellowship events like game nights, holiday parties, and social dinners after meetings. I became friends with members of the recovery community; I developed romantic feelings towards someone I met in the fellowship and I even entered into financial ventures with others who I grew to trust. These things were all well and good, so long as I remembered why I was there.

The Fifth Tradition reminds me that the primary purpose, the main reason I continue to go to meetings, is to carry our message to the suffering addict. In other words, the fellowship can serve many purposes, but the meetings themselves are not a social club. The meetings are not a dating pool. The meetings are not a business networking group. They are a place to do service and help newcomers.

As time passed, I developed stronger, healthier boundaries about how I interacted with people during meetings. I put aside my personal feelings towards people in the fellowship. I focused my shares on how to reach those who needed help. I made a concerted effort to welcome the newcomers, and to avoid cliques with friends. My actions have benefitted many newcomers and suffering addicts, but perhaps more importantly they’ve helped me to develop more spiritual integrity. Ultimately, this shelters me from the vicissitudes of my own biases and material desires.

Final thought: At each meeting, let me be of service by carrying the message to the suffering addict.