“I've got a confession to make.”
How do you feel when you say that? How do you feel when you hear it?!
What is the power that confession has for us in Step 5? (Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.) How does the inventory and self-examination of Step 4 make it possible to honestly make that confession? (Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.) How do these combine to give us ownership of our own faults, so that we are ready to change? (Step 6, Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.) And to ask for help in changing ourselves? (Step 7, Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.) Is it possible to truly “make it right” with those we hurt without having first made confession from the depth of our being? (Steps 8 and 9, Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.) Confession, in Steps 5 and 9, is a cornerstone of recovery, and makes it possible to find redemption and forgiveness.
Our topic for next week is either serenity or shame. Both start with the letter “s” but are otherwise pretty much unrelated. (How) have you found serenity? What does it mean to you? Or… Does shame still dominate your life? How has recovery helped you to move into and through your shame? Please call us at 734-707-8795 or email feedback@therecoveryshow.com with your questions or experience, strength and hope. Or just leave a comment right here.
Links
We talked about a litany of atonement, with the refrain “We forgive ourselves and each other. We begin again in love.
Suzanne loves the meditation podcast 60 Seconds of Solitude.
Spencer has been reading and enjoying the memoir Unwasted: My Lush Sobriety, by Sacha Z. Scoblic.
Music from the show
Jessica Andrews: Who I Am
U2: Sometimes You can't Make it on your own
Sara Bareilles: Say You're Sorry