December 9: Your Gift Has a Place

You serve at meetings. Have you thought about serving at church too?

Many people in recovery throw themselves into service at meetings. That’s good. But Step Twelve says to practice these principles in all our affairs, and that includes your church family. Your recovery isn’t meant to live in one corner of your life.

Peter says each person has received a gift. Not some people. Each one. And those gifts are meant to be used to serve others, as good stewards of God’s grace. A steward is someone trusted with something that belongs to someone else. Your gifts aren’t really yours to keep. They’re God’s, placed in your hands to pass along.

What’s your gift? You might not know yet. Some people are good with their hands. They can fix things, build things, cook. Some are good with people. They welcome, listen, encourage. Some can teach. Some can organize. Some can pray faithfully for others. Some are good with kids.

And some have a gift they’d never think to name: their story. A church full of people who’ve never faced addiction may not know how to help someone who has. You do. You might be the person who can sit with a family whose son is drinking. Or the one who can tell a struggling member there’s a way out. Or the one who helps start a recovery ministry where there isn’t one.

Serving at church does something for you too. It roots you in a community that’s not built around your problem. It connects you with people of all ages and backgrounds. It reminds you that your identity isn’t “person in recovery.” It’s “child of God, member of the body, with something to give.”

Start small. Ask someone at church where help is needed. Try a few things. Notice what gives you energy and what drains you. Over time, you’ll find your place.

One thing today

Talk to someone at your church this week and ask where help is needed. Choose one thing to try, even once, before the end of the month.

A prayer

Lord, You’ve given me gifts I don’t always see. Show me what they are, and where to use them. Make me a faithful steward of Your grace, at meetings, at church, and everywhere else. Amen.

Serving in every part of life is Step Twelve.

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