12 steps series step 6: entirely ready! by ken wilson
Summary: First 3 steps about admitting defeat & surrendering to God. Steps 4-5: honestly facing yourself, warts & all…
By comparison, Step 6, looks like a cake-walk: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Velvet brick On outside, looks soft & fuzzy. On inside, packs a wallop
Take it reverse order: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Which defects of character are we talking about? The ones we honestly face in our searching & fearless moral inventory….admitted to God, ourselves, another human being.
God & the devil, heaven & hell, life & death, sobriety & insanity are in the details. We’re only as ready to have God in our lives as we are ready to face and name our defects of character. (Plenty of religion without that, but not plenty of God.)
No transformation without removal of character defects and Jesus Brand spirituality is all about transformation….
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” “All,” a pretty big word for just 3 little letters
All these defects of character? Every single one? Big ones? Little ones? And all the in-between ones? All as in “ each & every”? As in “no exceptions?” As in, “can’t even keep one as a souvenir?”
We’re smacking into the difference between our agenda for our lives and God’s agenda. Our agenda: get rid of just enough defects of character to make us happy, successful—or just to look good. God’s agenda: a little more than sweeping than that...
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Not just the language of forgiveness…language of removal! An act can be forgiven in a moment’s time. But the removal of a character defect is a different process, a life long deal.
Step 6 Psalm is Psalm 51: 1-12. King David has been busted for taking Bathsheba for his own, covering up his power grab, and eventually conspiring to have Bathsheba's husband murdered. Contrary to popular opion, the focus of Psalm 51 is not David's sexual sin. That was the lesser of his evils, a matter of weakness. The focus of the psalm was a deeper character defect: using his position for selfish gain.
Psalm 51: 1-3 David is longing for the removal of character defects. “blot out” = the process of removing ink from a leather scroll.
“wash away” = a woman at a washboard, soap, water, elbow grease.
Psalm 51: 4 David understands sin in personal, relational terms… David’s sin hurts God. (Jesus on cross: our sin hurts God)
Psalm 51: 5-6 This tendency to abuse our power for selfish gain is deeply imbedded in us. Not just a moment’s weakness; defect of character. Calls for deep cleansing action…
Psalm 51: 7-12 The Step 6 Psalm! “Grant me a willing spirit” = “Make me entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character!” He’s asking for radical soul surgery ….
This is not the prayer of a perfectionist: someone who attempts to remove by himself all defects of character, so he can present himself perfect to God and the world. Perfectionism is a form of insanity. It comes from being drunk on yourself!
This is prayer of a realist, who understands he can’t remove his own defects of character. He needs help!
His prayer is not: ‘I’ve been very bad, but now I promise to be good!”
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character!” It’s the same trust we have to place in a surgeonto remove a deeply imbedded cancer.
Think of the trust required to submit yourself to major surgery!
Anesthesia: closest thing to dead…Then scalpels come out! (Orthopedic OR lined w/ stainless steel saws, drills, hammers, screwdrivers!) Incisions are made! The moving & removing of things never before touched by human hands!
First thing wrong w/ first human, thing that preceded sin, was what? Isolation! “It is not good for the human to be alone” (Gen. 2:18)
How was this problem fixed? “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh” (Gen. 2:21) Surgery!
Now if you’re going in for cancer surgery do you tell the surgeon “Get most of it, if you can, but leave a little behind as a souvenir”
No! While you’re in there, get all of it!
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Does this mean we have no part to play in our own recovery? Does the patient have no part to play? Better believe he has a part to play! Like showing up for surgery, disrobing, laying on gurney. Then after surgery, get up and walk, empty bladder, breathe into that breath thing….go to physical therapy…
Rear ended, upper back pain . George PT, wants to perform “fast adjustment with force ”: my fear of broken neck. George: ‘relax.‘ Stretching exercises, ice daily, but biggest step, trusting George.
“What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (Jn. 6:28-29) The real work is trust!
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” God will not remove a single defect of character w/o permission. He doesn’t go round committing acts of unsolicited surgery on people. He won’t go to work until we’re ready, until we sign the consent form .
Here’s where we need to treat ourselves to a little honesty with ourselves . We are sometimes a little attached to our character defects. The ones that have served us well, we think.
Here’s one of my own: I prefer not to need other people . Defect —way my character has been bent. Don’t blame myself for it. Understand why…factors beyond my control. But I must take responsibility. Because it’s my character defect and noboby else’s.
Long term stain removal project. 14 y.o. “God if you exist…”
19 y.o. admitted my need for God…then wear & tear of life reveals need for others. Now, 52 deeper…emotional needs, don’t just ignore, see it as another way to connect with others. Scrub a dub dub!
Jean Pierre deCaussade in the Sacrament of the Present Moment, about God’s work in & through every moment of our lives.
“All that happens to me becomes bread to nourish me, soap to cleanse me, fire to purify me. Everything is a channel of grace for my needs. -- Jean-Pierre de Caussade
This sometimes painful process of defect removal doesn’t stop in this life, because God loves me enough not to be satisfied until all that remains of me is truly me.
But beyond our own need, our own longing for transformation, Step 6 is about what we can offer God in true worship.
The Heart of Worship, by Matt Redman
"When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come. Longing just to bring something that’s of worth, that will bless your heart I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required. You look much deeper within, through the way things appear, You’re looking into my heart."
This is the great dilemma of worship, isn’t it? Authentic worship involves presenting ourselves to God. But the selves we present are riddled with these distortions, these defects. These injustices, these cracks in the mirror.
Many of us, in the face of this dilemma, shrink back from worship . But Step 6, “were entirely ready ” is what we bring that will bless his heart.
Psalm 51 ends with these words: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it... The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51: 17)
This is the worship that only sinners can bring. The “something that’s of worth, that will bless your heart.”