March 25
The Limit of My Part
We have listened, offered practical help, and kept the promise we made. Still, the situation remains difficult. It can be tempting to search for one more thing to do, then another, until we are exhausted and resentful. Somewhere along the way, being useful has become proving that we can make everything turn out well. A limit begins to feel like a personal failure rather than a fact of the situation.
There is humility in recognizing when our part has reached its present edge. Other people have choices, events have consequences, and God has not placed every outcome in our hands. Resting does not erase the care we have given. Nor does acknowledging a limit excuse a promise we still need to keep. The honest question is what actually belongs to us now. It may be smaller, clearer, and less heroic than the burden we have assumed.
What responsibility have I quietly enlarged into a demand to control the outcome?
The promise I actually made is enough to attend to.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Step Seven; As Bill Sees It, No. 271, “A.A. in Two Words.”