Step Six
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these
defects of character.”
“This is the
Step that separates the men from the boys.”
So declares a well-loved clergyman who happens to be one of A.A.’s
greatest friends. He goes on to explain
that any person capable of enough willingness and honesty to try repeatedly
Step Six on all his faults—without any reservations whatever—has indeed come a
long way spiritually, and is therefore entitled to be called a man who is
sincerely trying to grow in the image and likeness of his own Creator.
Step Six—“Were entirely ready to have
God remove all these defects of character”—is A.A.’s way of stating the best
possible attitude one can take in order to make a beginning of this lifetime
job. This does not mean that we expect
all our character defects to be lifted out of us as the drive to drink
was. A few of them may be, but with most
of them we shall have to be content with patient improvement. The key words “entirely ready” underline the
fact that we want to aim at the very best we know or can learn.
What we must recognize now is that
we exult in some of our defects. We
really love them. Who for example, doesn’t
like to feel just a little superior to the next fellow, or even quite a lot superior? Isn’t it true that we like to let greed
masquerade as ambition? To think of liking lust seems impossible. But how many men and women speak love with
their lips, and believe what they say, so that they can hide lust in a dark
corner of their minds? And even while
staying within conventional bounds, many people have to admit that their
imaginary sex excursions are apt to be all dressed up as dreams of romance.
Self-righteous anger also can be
very enjoyable. In a perverse way we can
actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us, for it
brings a comfortable feeling of superiority.
Gossip barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character assassination,
has its satisfactions for us, too. Here
we are not trying to help those we criticize; we are trying to proclaim our own
righteousness.
Many will at once ask, “How can we
accept the entire implication of Step Six? Why—that is perfection!” This sounds
like a hard question, but practically speaking, it isn’t. Only Step One, where we made the 100 percent
admission we were powerless over alcohol, can be practiced with absolute
perfection. The remaining eleven Steps
state perfect ideals. They are goals toward
which we look, and the measuring sticks by which we estimate our progress. Seen in this light, Step Six is still
difficult, not all impossible. The only
urgent thing is that we make a beginning, and keep trying.
Looking again at those defects we
are still unwilling to give up, we ought to erase the hard-and-fast lines that
we have drawn. Perhaps we shall be obliged
in some cases still to say, “This I cannot give up yet. . . ,” but we should
not say to ourselves, “This I will never give up!”
The moment we say, “No, never!” our
minds close against the grace of God.
Delay is dangerous, and rebellion may be fatal. This is the exact point at which we abandon
limited objectives, and move toward God’s will for us.