In Step Six we are asked to be entirely ready to have God remove all the defects of character we identified in our Fourth Step and admitted in our Fifth Step.
I've been sitting with Step Six for weeks, trying to understand what it's asking. Steps Four and Five were clear – write an inventory, share it with someone. Concrete actions I could complete. But Step Six feels different. It's not asking me to do something. It's asking me to become something.
In Step Six, we are asked to be entirely ready to have God remove all the defects of character we identified in our Fourth Step and admitted in our Fifth Step. Entirely ready. Not to remove them myself. Not to work harder at changing. Just to be ready for God to remove them. This distinction is crucial and confusing.
I used to think I just needed more effort, the right actions to solve my problems. Tell me what to do, and I'll do it. Give me a task, and I'll complete it. But readiness isn't a task. It's a state of being. I can't manufacture it or force it. I can only notice when I'm resistant and stay with the process until readiness emerges.
Step Six asks me to stop trying to control even my own transformation. To become entirely ready and trust God with the actual removing.
Practice
If I'm trying to force readiness or manufacture willingness, I can stop pushing. Readiness emerges when I stop fighting it. I can pray: Help me become ready. Then I wait with the discomfort until genuine readiness appears rather than trying to will it into existence.
Today’s Reminder
Readiness is a state of being not a task to complete.
