January 28
Room to Do the Job
We agree that somebody else will handle a service task, then ask to approve every little decision. The wording, the timing, the arrangement of the chairs all seem worth checking. We call this support. The person doing the work may experience something closer to being given a responsibility with no room to carry it.
Trust has practical consequences. If another member is to serve, some decisions must actually belong to them. We can explain what the group needs, remain available, and ask for an account of how things went. We can also allow a competent result to look different from the one we imagined. A.A.'s service principles recognize that responsibility requires enough authority to act. In our own small corner of the fellowship, accepting that arrangement may reveal how much we depend on others while still trying to preserve the feeling that everything depends on us.
When I entrust a task, what authority am I still reluctant to release?
They have a way of doing this, too.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept III.