Step six means we stop trying to recover using our own methods. Our best efforts in the past obviously failed us. God will reveal new ways to overcome our character defects. The problem is, (if you want to call it that), is that it will take time. God works according to his own time table, not ours. We must be prepared to wait.
Waiting is the tricky part, but ask anyone who has some sobriety and they will tell you how they waited. They waited by surrendering and letting go, over and over again. They waited by working the program. They waited and then one day realized the defect of character that had been plaguing them most of their lives had somehow (miraculously?) dissipated.
It is tough to wait. It is tantamount to suffering, but it’s a different kind of suffering. You suffer with temptation. You suffer facing the reality of your character defects that have been avoided with addiction, BUT because you are recovering, you suffer with a sense of hope. Along the way, as you work on recovery, you’ll experience something that will give you the hope of recovery. Maybe something someone says in a meeting, or a phrase from a twelve step book, and as every fiber in your being wants to act out on your addiction you wait with the promise that someday, maybe even in the next moment, God will arrive, give you a way out, and actually help you change.
Written by "Anonymous"
