Killing mosquitos reminds me of my program of recovery.
You see mosquitos are pests. They carry disease and make me itch. It seems that it would be a good thing to kill them.
But, then we started to notice that when we spray to kill these pests, we are also taking out large populations of honeybees. This is a very big problem because our flowers and these bees have a symbiotic relationship. They depend upon one another. Without them, we would see less flowers and enjoy less honey.
Last night at my twelve-step meeting, we had six new-comers (six meetings or less). Our topic was on step seven:
“Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.”
Most of us ‘old-timers’ worried about these new faces to the room. We understand ‘as perhaps few others can’ how hard it is to walk through that door for the very first time.
Many of us have cried our way through our first few meetings. So, we were concerned enough about starting these newbies off at a place where we are looking at what we’ve done wrong, that we offered the new folks to break off from the group and have a meeting just for them to explain a bit about our program.
They all declined. My fellow friends of the program all looked sheepishly at one another and carried on. We didn’t want these folks to think that we were dismissing the hurt that they must be feeling.
Our chairperson had prepared an envelope of questions about step seven. We could choose a question or read about step seven, share what was on our hearts or simply pass.
And, then the miraculous happened…as it often does. “God is such a show-off,” one member exclaimed, as we left. Because He took a difficult and hard concept to grasp in the beginning and made it the very thing that our new-comers needed to hear.
The disease of addiction manifests itself in such a way, that it carries its disease to our family as a whole. It causes problems that frustrate us daily.
But, when we take over and try to eradicate this disease on our own, we usually take out a lot of good things in the process. We may remove some much needed consequences that God had in store for our loved ones that would give them just the thing that they need to help them find recovery.
We may become frustrated when our efforts don’t work and become angry. Those emotions can take over our lives killing what relationship we have had left. They can rob us of peace and serenity.
Step 7 is all about humility
Step seven reminds us how important humility is. We can’t see the entire picture, or know how our loved ones really feel. We may not know what they’ve been through and only have the power to look at what we do or do not contribute to the situation.
St. Ignatius taught his Jesuit brothers to look for God in all things. So, now I think about those mosquitos and and wonder is God showing me how my actions might be causing more problems than solving them? Am I paying enough attention to the lessons that are everywhere?
Where have you found God teaching you a lesson about your program of recovery? I’d love to hear your stories.
Please find a seventh step prayer here.