Text: Isaiah 40:28-31
I suppose every one of us can remember playing "Hide and Seek" as children. Someone is picked to be "it" first. Then that person turns around and counts with their eyes closed at the "base" while everyone else hides. Then "It" says, "Ready or not, here I come!" Then tries to find those hidden. If the people get to the base without getting tagged, they are "home free."
"Are we ready or not?" That seems to be the question that is asked in Step Six. Are we entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character?
Let me review the first five steps to recovery that we have discussed up to this point:
1) We admitted we were powerless over the effects of our separation from God and that our lives had become unmanageable.
2) We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3) We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
4) We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5) We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
And now I turn to Step Six which says, "We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."
Entirely ready? Now there's a requirement for you. The first five steps prepare us for change by admitting all the right things. But admitting the exact nature of our wrongs is a far different thing from being "entirely ready" for them to be removed.
To me, "ready" means "ready and willing." I had a friend in Arkansas who decided that "willing" and "not willing" were very important words in relationships.
Perhaps we have all been in those conversations with our children when they ask why we won't do something for them. The conversation often goes like this: "Get me a cookie." "No." "Why?" "Because it will ruin your supper." "Why?" "Because too many sweets are not good for you." "Why?" "Because you are supposed to have a balanced diet." "Why?" And, of course, that kind of conversation can go on forever and drive a parent crazy in the process.
But consider this conversation: "Get me a cookie." "No." "Why?" "Because I am not willing to." And the conversation ends. There is no real arguing with "I am not willing." "Not willing" heads further debate off at the pass. A person can stick at "not willing" forever without budging.
And that is what most of us do when it comes to making changes in our lives. We are not willing to change, and that's our real problem. We are not willing to let go of our old character defects. We are "not willing." End of conversation.
Moving from "not willing" to "willing" or "entirely ready" is not an easy step. Sometimes we just have to wait until "willing" comes.
When I turned to the Bible to find an example of Step Six, I immediately thought of Jesus getting himself ready for Good Friday and his own crucifixion. How do you get yourself ready to be crucified?
Mark 14 tells us how Jesus did it, and it is a lesson for all of us.
"32They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, 'Sit here while I pray.' 33He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. 34And he said to them, 'I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.' 35And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36He said, 'Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.'" The King James says, "Not my will but thine be done."
Luke's version of this event records that Jesus was so intense that he sweated great drops of blood. Getting ready is hard work.
We too need to go the garden and pray like we have never prayed before. After we have prayed hard enough to sweat drops of blood, only then can we say with Christ, "Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want."
The writer of the book of James tells us, "Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near." (James 5:7-8)
We can view the first five steps as seeds that have been sown. We may have cultivated the ground, planted the seed, added fertilizer and water, but now we have to wait for germination. There's nothing to do but wait.
We can learn from the farmer on this. The farmer has to learn that there are certain things he must do to encourage the crops, but in the end, the farmer cannot make them grow. The farmer cannot control the weather, as much as he may complain about it.
The farmer realizes he is not responsible for everything that happens. Every farmer knows that his crop is a collaboration between his hard work and God's work. There comes a time when the farmer has to let go and trust.
The work of removing our character defects is equally a collaborative effort between us and God. God is a collaborator, a non-coercive collaborator. God is not coercive! God never forces change on us. The help of God is offered to us, then God waits. God waits for us to be entirely ready. It takes two to make the amazing miracle of recovery happen.
We are not expected to remove our character defects alone. But we must become ready to release our faults. We must sincerely want change. We must get ourselves ready to "let go and let God" help us.
When we are truly ready, then God does the work of transformation. Romans 12: 2 says, "2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect."
1 Peter 1:13-14 says, "13Therefore prepare your minds for action (The King James says, "Gird up the loins of your mind"); discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed."
In order to be truly ready, entirely ready, we have to gird up the loins of our minds. When we get our minds ready, then God works in mysterious ways that are beyond our control, sometimes beyond our imagining. Like many things in our lives, the work of recovery depends on God and not on our hard work.
There is no action that we can take to move us from "not willing" to "entirely ready." We just have to wait and give God's power time to work its way in us. Being ready is the spiritual work of quieting our minds and opening our hearts. It is the work of prayer alone.
It's like gumption, a word I happen to love. Some things we just can't do until we get the gumption. We may decide to clean the garage, and today may be the first free day to do it. But if we don't have the gumption for it, we will be in a sour mood about it all day long. At times like that, it is best to walk away for a while and get our gumption up. Then when we come back, we may find ourselves whistling while we work. Gumption makes all the difference. It means being "entirely ready."
And removing character defects is the same way. It just won't happen until we get our gumption up. Sometimes we have to wait. Wait and pray, and wait. And that is hard work in itself.
Bungee jumping is not a difficult sport. In fact it may be the easiest sport there is. All one has to do is take the first step, and the rest comes easy. But that one step is a doozy.
We may be dressed to jump. We may have all the facts about the security of the bungee cord. We may even have complete confidence in the operators. But we won't jump until we are ready, entirely ready. When we get our gumption up, we take that fateful step.
Imagine the thinking of the waiting bungee jumper. "I know I can do this. I have just seen other people jump and return safely. I know I will not die. I trust this cord. I trust this operator. I am scared to death. But here I go."
As I typed the word "scared," I accidentally transposed the letters, and it came out "sacred." The two words have the same letters. Taking that step off the platform of our sins when we are scared to death is a sacred step. Only by taking the leap of faith can the sacred enter our lives and bring healing.
We have to overcome our fears. The thought of losing our character defects tends to produce fear. We have relied on them for a long time. But we must overcome our fear and take the steps to recovery.
We prepare for Step Six by quieting our minds and opening our hearts. We must make a quiet time for ourselves. We put down the pencils and put on the walking shoes. We must take time to be alone with ourselves and with God. We have to wait and pray.
The wonderful passage from Isaiah 40 tells us what will happen when we wait on the Lord, "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."