What is "our real purpose" ("to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us")?

Where the sentence sits (pp. 76–77)

Chapter 6 has just introduced Steps Eight and Nine: "Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the past." (p. 76). Then it raises a worry. Looking over the list of "business acquaintances and friends we have hurt, we may feel diffident about going to some of them on a spiritual basis" (p. 76). The reassurance: "To some people we need not, and probably should not emphasize the spiritual feature on our first approach. We might prejudice them." (pp. 76–77).

The next three sentences are the ones the question asks about: "At the moment we are trying to put our lives in order. But this is not an end in itself. Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us." (p. 77).

Then the paragraph returns to the practical matter. "It is seldom wise to approach an individual, who still smarts from our injustice to him, and announce that we have gone religious." (p. 77). The book calls this "leading with the chin" (p. 77), and asks why we should "lay ourselves open to being branded fanatics or religious bores" (p. 77). The reason given is not our comfort but the message: "We may kill a future opportunity to carry a beneficial message." (p. 77). The person we harmed "is going to be more interested in a demonstration of good will than in our talk of spiritual discoveries" (p. 77).

The following paragraph keeps the balance: "We don't use this as an excuse for shying away from the subject of God." (p. 77). When it will serve a good purpose, "we are willing to announce our convictions with tact and common sense" (p. 77).

What "real purpose" is set against

Read in place, the sentence contrasts two purposes. The immediate one is to "put our lives in order" (p. 77), the housecleaning of Steps Four through Nine. The book says that is "not an end in itself" (p. 77). The real one is to become fit to be useful to God and to the people around us. The amends, then, are done for that end, and the way we make them (without preaching) is judged by that end: whether it keeps or kills "a future opportunity to carry a beneficial message" (p. 77).

The book does not define "maximum service" further on this page. "Fit ourselves" is not explained either; the nearest echo is Chapter 6's later phrase about reacting sanely "so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition" (p. 85), but the book does not connect the two sentences itself.

The same purpose elsewhere in the book

The sentence on p. 77 is not a new idea; it states what the book says in several places.

• Chapter 2: "Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs." (p. 20).
• Bill's story: his friend (unnamed in the Big Book) had told him he was never to pray for himself "except as my requests bore on my usefulness to others" (p. 13), and that "Particularly was it imperative to work with others as he had worked with me." (p. 14).
• Step Three: once God is "our Director," "we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs," and "More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life." (p. 63).
• The Seventh Step prayer, a page before our sentence, asks God to remove "every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows" (p. 76). See: What is the Seventh Step prayer, and where is it?
• Step Eleven's night review asks whether we were "thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life" (p. 86), and warns against morbid reflection because "that would diminish our usefulness to others" (p. 86).
• Chapter 7, on going where there is drinking: "Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful." (p. 102).
• The book's last page: "Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick." (p. 164).

The phrase "maximum service to God and the people around me" also turns up in a member's story (p. 395, fourth edition, 2001), where the teller says she was told this was her purpose on earth and "that didn't interest me." That is a story, not program text.

See: How does the Big Book say to make amends?, Is helping others selfish if it keeps me sober?, What does "Thy will be done" mean in the Big Book?

Read it yourself

• Chapter 6, "Into Action" (pp. 76–77): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
• Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution" (p. 20): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt2.pdf
• Chapter 5, "How It Works" (p. 63): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
• Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (p. 102): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
• The full book: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

Sources

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.