SESSION 17
Listen to Joe Hawk's eleventh tape.
Steps 10 and 11.
Step 10
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Step 11
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Steps 10 and 11 are growth Steps - not simply maintenance Steps. Steps 10 and 11 continue the spirÃtual growth we began with the first nine Steps. Practice of Step 10 and 11 daily, as prescribed, teaches us the true meaning of living one day at a time. This is not merely "white knuckle sobriety," but the way we live in the day and "stay on the beam" spiritually. By learning to live a spiritual life one day at a time, we keep ourselves spiritually fit, and our Higher Power keeps our "dis-ease" in remission. When we are spiritually fit, we are able to go anywhere or do anything, without fear or temptation. This is how we live for the long haul - one day at a time. The desire to drink has been removed.
The Big Book tells us that "Eternal vigilance is the price of sobriety." Eternal vigilance is the practice of Steps 10 and 11. This practice continues to invoke the spiritual awakening that imbues us with a message to carry to other alcoholics in Step 12.
Spot-check (continual) Inventory
As we move through the day, we continually review our thoughts and actions. We look for When we know we have done something wrong, we immediately amend the wrong, and offer the defect to God as we understand Him through prayer.
Prayer
Outbound communication to our Higher Power. Expression of our feelings, gratitude, and petitions to God. We found in Step 1 that lack of power is our problem. We ask for the necessary power to do the right things today. Upon arising, we ask that selfishness and self-seeking be removed, for the intuitive knowledge of God's will for us, and for the power to carry it out. Who can I help today? Before retiring, we reflect upon the day. What could we have done better? Daily practice of morning and evening prayer is part of keeping spiritually fit, and is critical in gaining and maintaining humility. Prayer does not change God or God's will. Prayer changes me.
Meditation
By quieting our minds, we facilitate inbound communication from our Higher Power. Done consistently over time, meditation quiets our noisy heads, yielding lower blood pressure and heart rate, more "alpha" brain waves and ultimately, an intuitive understanding of God's will for us. N.B. - If you hear God speaking to you in distinct words, call your sponsor immediately.
Daily Inventory
Generally conducted at the end of the day. As in the fourth step, where have I been selfish, self-seeking, dishonest or frightened? We review our thoughts and conduct, noting areas that need improvement and amends that need to be made. In these ways, we continually "weed our garden" - constantly noting and offering to God as we understand Him those areas in which we fall short.
Daily practice of these disciplines helps keep us spiritually fit, and intuitively able to know "the next right thing" as we go about our daily business. Sanity and serenity grow.
The Eleventh Step Prayer
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace!
That where there is hatred, I may bring love
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony
That where there is error, I may bring truth
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith
That where there is despair, I may bring hope
That where there are shadows, I may bring light
That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather
To comfort, than to be comforted
To understand, than to be understood
To love, than to be loved.
For
It is by self forgetting, that one finds.
It is by forgiving, that one is forgiven.
It is by dying, that one awakens to Eternal Life.
Amen.