“Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” — Alcoholics Anonymous (1939) · Chapter 5 · How It Works
Step Seven as printed in Chapter 5; the prayer that accompanies it appears in Chapter 6.
Seven words — the shortest Step — and the operative one is “asked.” Not fixed, not managed, not white-knuckled: asked. After a lifetime of self-improvement projects that doubled as self-attack, the program proposes something gentler and stranger: request the removal, then go be useful while the work happens. Humility here just means accuracy — knowing which jobs are yours and which never were.
Step 7