Steps Four through Nine are sometimes called the action steps. In Step One we admitted our powerlessness, in Step Two we began to develop faith in God and hope for personal healing, and Step Three becomes the decision step to trust the Lord. In Step Four, the rubber meets the road. We partner with God to begin work on those action steps to guarantee healing and recovery.
AA Step Four: "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."
LDS Addiction Recovery Guide Step Four: "Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself."
King Benjamin: "And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men" (Mosiah 4:2).
Each person "viewed himself" (or herself) and took a personal moral inventory, revealing the character defects causing the outward addictive behavior. Another group of people in the Book of Mormon suffered great loss, similar to addicts having lost everything meaningful in their lives, and their moral inventory was described as follows:
"And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, it was because of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the hungry, withholding their clothing from the naked, and smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and of revelation, murdering, plundering, lying, stealing, committing adultery, rising up in great contentions, and deserting away into the land of . . . " (please fill in the blank for your addiction of choice; see Helaman 4:12).
Outsiders may see only the results of the addiction and the drug of choice. It's that place we run to, instead of turning to Christ. But the root of the behaviors are in the moral inventory. In the case above, the list includes pride, selfishness, disregard for others, making a mockery of sacred things, denial, dishonesty, and contention.
I remember that first week of AA meetings. I wanted to learn how to "manage" my drinking, then graduate and move on with life. I figured it would take me about a week to knock out these Twelve Steps, then I could graduate and move on. Twenty seven years later, I'm still trying to work the Steps and I feel like I have just scratched the surface.
I didn't realize I suffer from the disease of alcoholism. And it's not the alcohol that gets me--it's the ism at the end of the word. And I learned in AA that ISM stands for I, Self, Me. So I needed a personal inventory to discover my "living problem" rather than my alcohol problem. I didn't discover the "bad news" of Step Four until years down the road, as I learned over time I had many addictions (too numerous to list here), and it was the same moral inventory at the root of each addiction.
Recently, I have tried to tackle another addiction, as my wife and I are sponsoring each other in Weight Watchers. I was doing great until about a week ago when I relapsed on chocolate.
A few weeks ago, my daughter, currently serving in the Canada Edmonton Mission, challenged me to prepare questions in advance of General Conference last week. One of my questions was "How can I deepen my discipleship?" The answer came from wonderful talks, including a great talk specifically about discipleship by Elder Hales, and the whisperings of the Spirit telling me I need to overcome my "own carnal state" and my tendencies for pride, selfishness, impatience, immediate gratification, and other character defects found in working Step Four. The bad news is that I cannot overcome my own carnal state. The good news is that by "applying the atoning blood of Christ" I can overcome all things.
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