Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
American author Ernest Hemingway says, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
Hemingway was an alcoholic, who committed suicide in 1961. He struggled with depression and with drinking to excess, which, in my experience, may go hand-in-hand.
Alcohol is a depressant (I am surprised how many men and women who are in AA do not know this fact when they arrive). I do not know which comes first: alcoholism or depression. By the time that a person suffers enough to step into that first meeting, it does not matter.
Admitting that one has a problem takes time. So does arriving at a place in which one is willing to change and to be changed.
Now that one is entirely ready...
Step six prepares the way for step seven. While I am not sure if anyone is ever entirely ready to have God remove one's defects of character, I do think that one comes to a place in one's sobriety in which one has to decide whether to open one's self to the future or to be haunted by the past.
For the clinically depressed person, opening one's self to the future is easier said than done, and yet for those who ask for help, especially those who ask for professional support, there is hope.
Knowing one's self and the God of one's understanding helps one to understand his or her place in the universe. By this point in the steps, one usually has enough experience, strength and hope to know that the God of his or her understanding, who is more powerful than alcohol, is more powerful than his or her shortcomings.
Ask.
Why would any of us be reluctant to ask God to remove our shortcomings? Because many of us are naturally fearful. We would rather be afraid than free, because fear is all that we know.
Fear of drinking again kept me sober for a while, but fear of drinking again is not enough when I bulge with self-pity or pride.
For me, it is helpful, when taking this step, to think about the alternatives to the shortcomings that I am asking God to remove, because when the shortcomings are removed, something has to be planted, watered and nurtured in place of them. For example, I pray that I will be more fulfilled than self-pitying and more humble than proud.
Welcome balance.
Humility, in my experience of the program, is that the heart of AA. Without an ounce of humility, one is incapable of taking the first step, much less the next six.
Hemingway's quotation applies here: humility is about striving to be superior to one's former self not to any other human being. My former self (and sometimes current self), my drunk self, is self-pitying and proud.
When I am pumped up with pride, I think of myself more highly than I ought to think. When I am caught in a web of self-pity, I look for someone other than the God of my understanding to lift me out of despair.
Since I have been in AA, I am becoming more balanced, because I am beginning to understand, practice and remember that the highs are not as high as they seem initially; neither are the lows.
I am better able to place life in perspective, because I am less likely to exaggerate the significance of any given day. If I stay sober through whatever problems that I face today, then I will have a chance at being happier, more joyous and freer tomorrow.
Hemingway was an alcoholic, who committed suicide in 1961. He struggled with depression and with drinking to excess, which, in my experience, may go hand-in-hand.
Alcohol is a depressant (I am surprised how many men and women who are in AA do not know this fact when they arrive). I do not know which comes first: alcoholism or depression. By the time that a person suffers enough to step into that first meeting, it does not matter.
Admitting that one has a problem takes time. So does arriving at a place in which one is willing to change and to be changed.
Now that one is entirely ready...
Step six prepares the way for step seven. While I am not sure if anyone is ever entirely ready to have God remove one's defects of character, I do think that one comes to a place in one's sobriety in which one has to decide whether to open one's self to the future or to be haunted by the past.
For the clinically depressed person, opening one's self to the future is easier said than done, and yet for those who ask for help, especially those who ask for professional support, there is hope.
Knowing one's self and the God of one's understanding helps one to understand his or her place in the universe. By this point in the steps, one usually has enough experience, strength and hope to know that the God of his or her understanding, who is more powerful than alcohol, is more powerful than his or her shortcomings.
Ask.
Why would any of us be reluctant to ask God to remove our shortcomings? Because many of us are naturally fearful. We would rather be afraid than free, because fear is all that we know.
Fear of drinking again kept me sober for a while, but fear of drinking again is not enough when I bulge with self-pity or pride.
For me, it is helpful, when taking this step, to think about the alternatives to the shortcomings that I am asking God to remove, because when the shortcomings are removed, something has to be planted, watered and nurtured in place of them. For example, I pray that I will be more fulfilled than self-pitying and more humble than proud.
Welcome balance.
Humility, in my experience of the program, is that the heart of AA. Without an ounce of humility, one is incapable of taking the first step, much less the next six.
Hemingway's quotation applies here: humility is about striving to be superior to one's former self not to any other human being. My former self (and sometimes current self), my drunk self, is self-pitying and proud.
When I am pumped up with pride, I think of myself more highly than I ought to think. When I am caught in a web of self-pity, I look for someone other than the God of my understanding to lift me out of despair.
Since I have been in AA, I am becoming more balanced, because I am beginning to understand, practice and remember that the highs are not as high as they seem initially; neither are the lows.
I am better able to place life in perspective, because I am less likely to exaggerate the significance of any given day. If I stay sober through whatever problems that I face today, then I will have a chance at being happier, more joyous and freer tomorrow.
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