Step 1: We admitted that we were powerless over our dependencies-that our life had become unmanageable.

January 24, 2007

What am I supposed to do with all these stories!?!

• A bright kid (bright and articulate and funny and smart – a kid who always said, “I’m going to grow up and be a doctor; I want to make sick kids well.”) drops out of high school and is currently serving out a felony conviction for drug trafficking.
• I literally almost tripped over another bright kid I know. I was downtown, headed to a meeting, and this homeless person, huddled inside an office doorway trying to keep warm, startles me as I round the corner and head into the building. I know this kid. A beautiful, talented, bright musician. This kid doesn’t make music any more.
• What about the grandpa I know who loves his kids and grandkids more than life itself (but not more than his addiction loves him)? His wife wants someone to visit him in prison, and maybe write him sometimes. She can’t stand to look at him AND she loves him. His addiction has forced his kids to sever all ties with the family. A drunken incident has landed him in jail.

Goodness! What extreme stories! Let me tell you the truth - these are not extreme stories – I wish they were. I have hundreds of stories like this hidden in my heart. These just happen to be three families who gave me permission to share their stories today. They are common stories. Families across every economic and racial spectrum are living these stories – many in isolation, ashamed to find themselves in these kinds of situations. Patrick Carnes, in Out of the Shadows, makes the point that the fatal progression of addiction begins years and years before anyone considers the addiction more than just a habit.

Consider the words of Gerald May ( Addiction and Grace, p.13) – “Addiction uses up desire. It is like a psychic malignancy, sucking our life energy into specific obsessions and compulsions, leaving less and less energy available for other people and other pursuits. Spiritually, addiction is a deep-seated form of idolatry. The objects of our addictions become our false gods. These are what we worship, what we attend to, where we give our time and energy, instead of love. Addiction, then, displaces and supplants God’s love as the source and object of our deepest true desire. It is, as one modern spiritual writer has called it, a “counterfeit of religious presence.” I bring this up because each of us has an idol or two hidden in our closet of secrets. Now would be a great time to acknowledge how truly powerless we are over these tiny idols that have become our false gods.

Scripture reading for today: Matthew 23 – 25

Thought for today: As you read this devotional, did you wonder why I included those stories on addiction? I did it with prayer and hope. My prayer is that you will hear these stories, and it will move your heart to listen to what’s really going on inside you. I pray that instead of your life becoming a story, you will find your place in God’s story – and live your grand epic adventure. Grand epic adventures are never discovered as we chase after false gods. My hope is that brutal honesty with self today could ward off those “counterfeit religious presences” that come to steal, kill, and destroy. I’m hoping for you – a satisfying, abundant life.

Thought for tomorrow:

It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most human beings live only for the gratification of it. Aristotle

January 24, 2007
Teresa McBean

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