6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
I love the way these steps get you ready for something before you actually do anything about it. In Step 2 we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity before we trusted that power with our lives (Step 3). Here we are asking if we are ready to have God get rid of all the bad stuff in our lives before He actually does it.
Well of course you want to get rid of the bad stuff, but not so fast. We’ve made adjustments to all this bad stuff. We have justifications and rationalizations for them all. These are our coping mechanisms. We depend on these things. Let’s at least get ready to lose them. Get ready to lose that whoopee blanket before He rips it out of our hands? In the movie, Mr. Mom, Jack gives his kid a moment with his blanket before he has to hand it over. That’s what this step is about — that moment.
Are we willing to lose everything we’ve relied on in our lives other than God? Do we even know what all these things are? We’ve tried to make a list, but that list is by no means complete. These things are subtle — these lies we’ve told ourselves for so long. They are defects in character, but we have become so attached to them that they have become our false security. When Jesus asked the man who had been crippled for 37 years if he wanted to be healed, he didn’t say yes. He gave an excuse. His excuse had become his security blanket. He would turn down being healed rather than lose his excuses that have comforted him for 37 years.
God was bragging about His servant Job one day when Satan said “Let me at him; I’ll get him to curse you.” So God let Satan take everything away from Job and even inflict him with diseases and great pain, and Job cursed the day he was born, but he held on to his faith in God. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” he said, finally.
It’s one thing to say you trust God; it’s another thing to actually trust Him when there is nothing else to hold on to. This step is simply saying, I’m ready to lose my addictions and my dependencies. It’s speculative. It’s not the thing itself, but it’s a step. That’s what these are: steps. Get out your list and ask yourself if you’re ready to have God get rid of all those defects in your character.
What would it be like without your defects in character?
Do you really want God to get rid of them? What’s holding you back?
