Step #6 – I Was Entirely? Ready (part 1)

Steps to the Spirit

Well, my friends, we are almost halfway through describing these 12 steps as I recall “I” worked through the. The sixth step is the third in what we call the action steps. As a reminder, the sixth step is: I was entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

In this podcast, I will talk about how I became and how I knew I was entirely ready. Actually, in retrospect, I don’t believe I was entirely ready! As I remember, my fourth step was relatively complete, other than a few things that I just couldn’t or wouldn’t allowed to occupy my mind at the time. I have certainly discovered them after many years of practicing this program. Some of them I have dealt with, with the help of my Spirit. Some, still rear their ugly heads and I try to deal with them as they arise. In my fifth step, which I really see as a continuation of the fourth step, I try to be as honest as possible with God, myself, and another human being. That took care of the first two action steps. Now, I had to try to become entirely ready for God to remove these defects of character.

I think it is important to tell you that I always have, and I imagine, always will, feel that there are two parts of me. There is, of course, the Spiritual me that I believe is perfect and joined in some way with all of your Spirits. There is also my humanity, which I believe is separate from my spiritual self. By saying “yes” to God in step number three, I made the decision to surrender the independence of my humanity. I decided to subject, as much as possible, my humanity, to that direction I could discern from my Spirit. Was I entirely ready? Not by a longshot! I did the best I could with all of the honesty that I could muster at the time.

My humanity was so used to taking care of itself that it was hard for me to get it to let go. The sum total of my personality, (that some people call ego), was screaming at me to continue to do things in the same manner I had done for many years. I really did not have the new human tools to replace those that had been ruining my life. I had to retrain my person to handle life according to the direction of my Spirit, and allow my personhood (ego) to develop accordingly I maintain that what some folks refer to as the ego, and give it an actual identity, does not exist. It is purely a construct, developed by Sigmund Freud, to describe behavior in a more understandable way. Ego is simply a construct, not an actual thing in any stretch of the imagination. I believe the term ego is happily accepted by some folks as an easy substitute on which to load or blame our wrongs. It is a little like the character Geraldine, played by flip Wilson, who became famous for saying, The devil made me do it! In reality, it is our entire personality that is responsible for our actions, or lack thereof.

So, what this step is really all about is preparing us for the actual, humble, request and step number seven. Remember, all of these steps are immeasurably easier because I have sincerely and honestly surrendered my life to God and my Spirit.