This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. (AA, pg. 84)
This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along.
This statement encapsulates the crass arrogance or gross ignorance of Bill W. and AA's take on human nature. Martin Luther went to his confessor every twenty minutes to confess his sins, but at the time he was merely going through the same motions that most religious institutions teach: one must confess one's sins in order to be forgiven, in order to restore fellowship with God the Father. Even earthly parents do not push their kids aside with callous aloofness if they fail and do not confess it.
Some "mistakes" can never be "set right". Then what do you do?
We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit.
One one AA website, the question of the day asked "How many times should you work your Fourth Step?" If men and women in AA really are "pains-taking" about this program, then they would never stop taking their inventory at all. How anyone can enter the word of the Spirit without cleaning up everything in their past just escapes me. Whatever world the AA book is mentioning, it is beyond fantastic, certainly not credible.
This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.
So much for "One Day at a Time." No wonder so many members get depressed, drop out, or commit suicide. I would hate to think of my life as going from one inventory to another, from one set of amends to another. That's not life or that more abundantly, but an eternal death sentence, since the member keeps on rehashing and rehearsing the past, whether it is one day or one year old.
Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear.
What a depressing plea. To look at oneself, one's feeling is to be depressed without remedy. Much of the time, our fears and resentments having nothing to do with us at all, but they are mere aberrations of our fallen nature. Instead of identifying with our feelings, let us identify with Christ and Him Crucified, who has secured all things for us.
Love and tolerance of others is our code.
Anyone who has survived the meetings for any length of time will burst out laughing when they read this lie. Nothing but ravaging gossip and bitterness dominates in AA meetings. Listening to a bunch of "Old Timers" talk about their sobriety is neither enlightening nor engage, but a massive waste of time and sanity. Just because someone has remained "sober" for any length of time does not qualify him or her to lecture to anyone else how to live their lives or "work their program."
I still remember one man who wanted to share something out of the "Sermon on the Mount", and right away the secretary of the meeting shut the man down in mid-sentence. She had a nasty habit of arguing and belittling people who shared their Christian faith in AA meetings. Nothing but intolerance and hate is the main code in AA, and the sooner that people leave, the better.
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