Step Eight - Where Have I Caused Harmed

 STEP EIGHT

Relationships are foundational to satisfying human living – relationship with God, with others, with ourselves. 

Step Eight of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is where we have landed today addresses our behaviour in our relationships with others and so it’s one of those challenging steps.  It tells us:  “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”

Now I suppose the easiest part of this step is the first part – making a list of all person we had harmed – though it has its own challenges because we get blocked out from seeing our own need for responsibility taking as we remember the pain connected to the events.  We so easily can identify and remember – forever – ways people have hurt and harmed us.  But, it’s so much more difficult to realize that either in anger or fear or just indifference, we have hurt and harmed others by our actions and inaction.

Jesus said:  Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. John 13:34, Luke 6:36-3

And what do we do with that phrase, “and become willing to make amends to them all?”

To truly become willing to make amends we have to see God in the middle of each painful and fearful circumstance or memory, receive His comfort and care, and then choose with God’s help to face whatever needs facing, trusting that the God who knows, who cares, and who heals, can and will make something good out of even the most traumatic events. 

Heavenly Father, Thank you for creating us to live in relationship with You and others.  Thank you for Jesus, whose death on the cross for our sins made loving relationships with You and others possible.  Your word says there is no fear in love, and we believe Your perfect love will cast out all our fear and help us become willing to make amends to those people we have hurt.

Today and ongoing we desire to do an honest inventory of our relationships and, where we’ve been wrong, we ask for your help to acknowledge our part in the situation.  So, Holy Spirit we quiet our hearts in Your love and ask You to sort out what’s going on in us – things that are disquieting to us today about strains in any of our relationships and also to show us where we’ve pushed away memories for so long that we are not even aware today of things that have brought distance or a breakdown of a relationship.

We want to live reconciled to a loving relationship with You and then with others.  Give us the courage to admit where we’ve been wrong and help us to become willing to make amends to anyone we have hurt.  Amen