STEP TEN

We continued to take personal inventory
and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

  • Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
    We are quite naturally impatient in everything
    to reach the end without delay.
    We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
    We are impatient of being on the way to something
    unknown, something new.
    And yet it is the law of all progress
    that it is made by passing through
    some stages of instability—
    and that it may take a very long time.

    And so I think it is with you;
    your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
    let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
    Don’t try to force them on,
    as though you could be today what time
    (that is to say, grace and circumstances
    acting on your own good)
    will make of you tomorrow.

    Only God could say what this new spirit
    gradually forming within you will be.
    Give our Lord the benefit of believing
    that his hand is leading you,
    and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
    in suspense and incomplete.

    PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

DIRECTION

  • Begin Crafting for Yourself a Daily Review

    1. Ask for God’s help.

    2. Inventory your blessings.

    3. Pray about significant feelings that emerge as you review the day.

    4. Rejoice and seek forgiveness.

    5. Look to tomorrow.

    Remember we were meant to:

    • remember the past with gratitude,

    • anticipate the future with hope;

    • dwell in our hearts with peace,

    • engage the world with love.

Consider the Cruciform Life

  • Pause and do a spot check right now. What do you find yourself thinking? Feeling? Are you being drawn closer to God? Farther away? In neutral? Is any- thing troubling you? Or consoling you? Does anything come to mind from this day that you need to correct or follow up on?

    Then meet God at the center of the cross, right here, right now, and proceed.

  • We don’t just take inventory at night. Certain medications come with the pre- scription PRN, short for the Latin pro re nata, which means “as the thing is needed.” Step 10 is PRN. We learn to pause and check ourselves quickly through- out the day as needed. Here is where our negative emotions can become a gift to us. One writer says, “It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.”15 When we get anxious, or resentful, or confused, or troubled in our conscience, it can become an invitation to take inventory and find out what is needed to “walk with the Spirit.” But we must train ourselves to listen.

    Remember this step is all about progress not perfection.

Encouraging quotes and scripture

  • Matthew 6:34:

    • "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has trouble enough of its own".

    Psalm 121:1-2:

    • "I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."

  • Blaise Pascal:

    • "We never keep to the present. . . . We anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. . . . Thus we never actually live, but hope to live".

    The Serenity Prayer (excerpt):

    • "Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace, taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it".

    Viktor Frankl:

    • "What does life expect of me?" (Encourages living with purpose in the present rather than focusing on desires).

    Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy:

    • On the intersection of past, present, and future: "We release both our past mistakes and future fears into God’s care so that we can walk by the Spirit in this present moment".

    Philip Yancey:

    • "God is strangely closer to sinners than to 'saints.' With each further knot, God keeps drawing us closer" (An analogy of God’s grace as a string that grows stronger through trials and forgiveness).

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  • How does focusing on living "one day at a time" challenge the way you approach your daily responsibilities, relationships, and worries?

    In what ways do concerns about the future or regrets about the past hinder your ability to experience peace in the present?

    Viktor Frankl asks, "What does life expect of me?" How would you answer that question today?

    What is difficult for you when it comes to accepting life's challenges as "the pathway to peace"?

    What practical steps could help you embrace a mindset of being present in the present to the Presence?

Pray for each other to close.