'The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon our assistance rather than upon God.' (Page 98, Alcoholics Anonymous)
We're told in AA that we're supposed to be of service, but then we're warned about putting our work on a service plane. Why?
The purpose of sponsorship is to show the individual how to establish a relationship with God, how to transcend material reality, in order then to devote their life to service, chiefly through helping others do the same, in a never-ending chain. On the side, lots of other people are served, helped, and benefited, but the fast-breeder nuclear reactor is helping others have spiritual awakenings. That's what powers the entire grid.
Many of the people I have tried to sponsor did not finish the process of the first nine Steps, and, of those who have completed the process, only some do indeed devote their lives to service.
Although it's good to relieve symptoms, and it's certainly true that a spiritual life will yield benefits in terms of a more effective, efficient, and harmonious material life, if the purpose is to feel better and/or to better fulfil one's own material objectives, the point has been missed.
For a long time, I used AA for my own purposes (relief of symptoms and more successful material living), and that's fine as far as it goes, but first of all the symptoms would come back and secondly the ego would re-spread through the material life and I would find myself repeatedly back at square one. The by-products of a spiritual life, namely relief of symptoms and more successful material living, will eventually disintegrate as the ego grows back, unless the spiritual life is lived for its own sake.
What does that mean in practice?
'All of us spend much of our spare time in the sort of effort which we are going to describe.' (Page 19, Alcoholics Anonymous)
The only way to retain symptomatic relief and successful material living is for neither of these to be a relevant factor in how I structure my life, in other words for life to be on an entirely different basis:
'He was on a different footing. His roots grasped a new soil.' (Page 12, Alcoholics Anonymous)
'If you want it, you can't have it.' (Cahuenga B)
One very dis-spiriting experience as a sponsor is sponsoring people as a service-provider, much like an acupuncturist or chiropractor, whose services are there to serve the individual.
Sponsorship works best, for everyone, when it is understood from the outset that the purpose of sponsorship is to train other people to sponsor. As a by-product, symptoms are relieved and the material life improves, but that's not the point.
A spiritual life does not necessarily entail being placid and comfortable in the world. It often entails great emotional and material difficulty. That's why, for it to be maintained, a fundamental choice needs to be made: Do I want to live a spiritual life for its own sake, or do I want to live a spiritual life because I think it will make me more comfortable, happy, and successful, in the terms I set?
Lurking at the back of these considerations is the cold hard fact that an ongoing spiritual experience is the only solution I have found to alcoholism and to the other obsessions of the mind, and that this spiritual experience involves awakening to a greater reality and sacrificing self entirely.
To sum up, I make myself available for sponsorship to people who want to transcend self and place themselves at God's disposal for a life of service.
A sponsor who is a service-provider to a sponsee is like a personal chef.
A sponsor in the sense described in the Big Book is a chef training other chefs. Sure, you get to eat great meals along the way, but that's not the point.