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Cunning, Baffling, and Powerful

Our AA friend was moving forward in his program.  It was his sixth year of sobriety.

His sponsor had insisted he complete another round of Steps.  He reckoned it was his third cycle through the Steps.

He finished his Step Five, went home, set a timer for an hour and thought about his Step work to that point.  He concluded that he had done all five steps to the best of his ability, had seen new defects and declared to his Higher Power that he was ready for all the new defects to be removed. 

He called his sponsor; he was ready for a conversation about Step Seven.  He felt good; his inventory had shown some new material to work with. 

He met his sponsor on a park bench.  

“Well,” said the confident young AA, “this is familiar terrain.  New defects to deal with. The first thing to do with these new defects, as I have in the past, is to stop doing them.”

The sponsor took his time before replying. “Stopping the practice of a defect is good; it always is.

“Stopping worked for your previous Step cycles; you have stopped the obvious and lumpy defects. 

“But this time, the defects are different. 

“In addition to the moral defects, we see personal defects—the insidious harms that you are causing in personal relationships.  The snarky remarks at meetings, the snippy tone at home, and let’s not forget, sarcastic humour at others’ expense. 

“These defects are sneaky. They creep up without warning. We do them thoughtlessly; they just leak out.

“These subtle defects have to be defeated before they arise. This round of Step Seven will require habitual pre-emptive strikes. 

“Every morning, you are going to meditate and pray for everyone and everything that you will deal with that day.  You will affirm that you will live in service and bring your Higher Power forward consciously; every morning, you have to prevent the leaky attitudes from developing during the day.

“Prevention, with daily preparation, is the only defence I have discovered to work against the personal defects you have seen this time.”

A good sponsor is cunning, baffling, and powerful.

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