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"You were selected because you have an understanding heart."
He might have said...
"Into your weak and feeble hands I have entrusted a Power beyond your estimate. To you has been given that which has been denied the most learned of your fellows. Not to scientists or statesmen, not to wives or mothers, not even to my spiritual leaders have I given this gift of healing other overeaters, which I entrust to you. It must be used unselfishly. It carries with it grave responsibility. No day can be too long, no demands upon your time can be too urgent, no case too pitiable, no task too hard, no effort too great. It must be used with tolerance, for I have restricted its application to no race, or creed, and no denomination. Personal criticism you must expect; lack of appreciation will be common; ridicule will be your lot; your motives will be misjudged. Success will not always attend your efforts in your work with other overeaters. You must be prepared for adversity, for what men call adversity is the ladder you must use to ascend the rungs toward spiritual perfection. I shall not exact of you beyond your capabilities."
"Keep ever in mind the admission that you made on the day of your profession of OA-namely, that you are powerless."
"You are not selected because of exceptional talents; and be careful always, if success attends your efforts, not to ascribe to personal superiority that to which you can lay claim only by virtue of my gift. If I had wanted learned men to accomplish this mission, the power would have been entrusted to the physician and scientist. If I had wanted eloquent men, there would have been many anxious for the assignment, for talk is the easiest used of all talents with which I have endowed mankind. If I had wanted scholarly men, the world is filled with better qualified than you who would have been available. You were selected because you have an understanding heart, for your long experience as a compulsive overeater has made, or should make you, humbly alert to the cries of distress that come from the lonely hearts of overeaters everywhere. Keep ever in mind the admission that you made on the day of your profession of OA-namely, that you are powerless, and that it was only with your willingness to turn your life and will into my keeping that relief came to you."
"The help which has been keeping you normal will keep you so just as long as you live this program."
"Think not that because you have abstained one day, one week, or one year, that it is the result of your unaided efforts. The help which has been keeping you so normal will keep you so just as long as you live this program which I have mapped out for you. Beware of the pride that comes from growth, the power of numbers and invidious comparisons between yourselves or your organization with other organizations whose success depends on numbers, money, and position. These material things are no part of your creed. The success of material organizations comes from the pooling of joint assets; yours from the union of mutual liabilities. Appeal for membership in material organizations is based upon a boastful recital of their accomplishments; yours on the humble admission of weakness. The motto of successful commercial enterprise is: 'He profits most who serves best;' yours: 'He serves best who seeks no profit.' The wealth of material organizations, when they take their inventory, is measured by what they have left; yours, when you take moral inventory, by what you have given."