"Alcoholics are not inferior. They are frequently hypersensitive people trying to live in an insensitive world." — Chuck C.
Step Six asks us to become entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. That's easier to talk about than it is to do.
We alcoholics are funny. We can be hypersensitive enough to notice every little slight, yet completely insensitive to the damage we're doing while we're acting on a defect. When resentment is engaged, we're lawyers building a case. When lust is engaged, we're salesmen closing a deal. When fear is engaged, we're fortune tellers predicting disaster. The problem isn't that we're sensitive. The problem is what we're connected to in the moment.
When we're plugged into a defect, it becomes hard to imagine life without it. Resentment feels justified. Fear feels necessary. Pride feels protective. We don't see them as defects at all—we see them as solutions. That's why Step Six isn't really about removing defects. It's about becoming willing. Willing to admit that what we've been relying on isn't working. Willing to consider that God's way might be better than our way. Willing to stop defending the very things that keep hurting us.
Most of us don't become willing all at once. We become willing a little at a time. One resentment. One fear. One selfish demand. One defect at a time. The good news is that we don't have to remove them ourselves. We just have to become willing and stay connected to the God that can.
Have you ever mistaken a character defect for a strength? What was it?
