Concept I

In taking Step Three, I made a decision to serve God, twenty-four hours a day. When Step Three refers to my life, that's what it means: my whole life, not part of my life. The question is, how? I am delegated responsibility and authority, but I am not the originator of that responsibility and authority. God is. God speaks through my individual conscience in prayer and meditation, through the conscience of my sponsor, through the group conscience, through the conscience of intergroup and region, and through the conscience of the national conference for AA in GB. I can trust this, because AA has a mechanism for self-correction: personal inventory. The minority opinion also allows me to express objections whilst respecting the decisions made. Anything that calls itself AA must recognise that great whole that Tradition One talks about, by submitting to its ultimate responsibility and authority, from which it derives its delegated responsibility and authority. If it does not, it is serving something other than AA. In AA, I'm learning to be a servant, and in whatever I do I am accountable to God through the conscience of AA. In my outside life, my question is always: who has the ultimate responsibility and authority? My job is to serve that higher responsibility and authority, provided that no one is thereby harmed. When my attitude is one of service, I am always safe, and I am always kept useful.