Step #10 – Spiritual Upkeep (part 1)

Steps to the Spirit

Well, my friends, here I am at step number 10. As a reminder, my version of step number 10 is: I continue to take personal inventory and when I am wrong, promptly admit it.

These final three steps, 10, 11, and 12, are commonly known as the maintenance steps. These steps don’t provide me with maintenance in the same way as my car, say, every 5000 miles. Hopefully, I learned to apply these maintenance steps at least once every day, and usually, more often than that. Yes, it would be like driving my car to the shop every morning for a checkup. The mechanic, probably after saying, “oh my God, not him again!”, would start noticing even the smallest of problems.

Staying with the analogy of my car, the mechanic may notice some big thing that has to be fixed immediately, or you may find an issue and tell me that he’ll keep an eye on it and see if it gets worse. This is somewhat how it is for me in applying this 10th step to my spiritual progress. Sometimes I would do something and it bothers me so much that I know I have to try to repair the damage as soon as possible, both for my well-being, as well as that of the person I may have harmed. For me, this step is a continuation of the fourth through ninth steps. That is why it is a maintenance step. It allows me to sort of keep an eye on myself as I continue to see my life through the eyes of my Holy Spirit and God.

There is no need for maintenance on the first three (Grace) steps. Once I have earnestly and solemnly done them, and said “yes” to God, I became a changed (the word used in the Oxford group) human being. I need not repeat those first three steps because my “yes” to God is an eternal one. However, saying “yes”, while consecrating us for eternity as a child of God, does nothing, in most cases to smooth over our human foibles. No, this is our constant human battle to become the person God has designed us to be, with the help of our Holy Spirit.