Meetings are good; the 11th Step is essential

Last night an AA I recently met told me that he tried to stop drinking for 23 years.  All that time he came to AA meetings and followed the advice he kept getting: "Just don't drink and come to meetings."  He kept pointing out to people that this wasn't exactly working for him and the reply was pretty much always "keep coming back."  Finally someone suggested that he try working the Steps.  For 23 years the only tool he was offered was meetings.  Using the Steps he has now been sober for 5 years.

This story is extreme but I find it perfectly believable.  We tend to be hooked on meetings.  Try this experiment: what would you say to someone who asked you to describe AA?  Odds are you would talk about meetings.  I know 9 times out of 10 I would.
Now, don't get me wrong.  Meetings are great.  I attend 6 - 8 a week and they are a tremendous help but they are not the backbone of my recovery.  The Steps are.  At this point in my recovery that means 10, 11, and 12 on a daily basis and 11 is the key.  It is the love I access through the 11th Step that changes the meaning of what I do in my life, making true 12th Step work possible.  Without Step 11, what 12th Step work I do would be about me, my desire to gain admiration and to feel good about myself.  As St. Paul said, "Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned -- if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever" (I Cor 13:3).  If my 12th Step work -- and all of my actions in the world should ultimately be 12th Step work -- is to be effective it must be shaped by the perspective and energy I receive through contact with my Higher Power in Step 11.
'Just don't drink and go to meetings' doesn't cut it.  As the saying goes, AA is not for those who need it; it is not even for those who want it; AA is for those who DO it.  And 'doing it' means first and foremost the Steps.