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Sunday, October 11, 2009
Challenges, Addictions & Struggles, Oh My!
By Rev. Jerry Herships
Philippians 4: 12-13
12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
This is one of the few scripture verses I have memorized. I learned a different version in a biblically based money management class. The point was to learn about contentment.
What I want to focus on is the last verse; ten words, that in many ways, are the source of our energy and inner power as Christians: I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
I wanted to talk tonight about addictions. I will touch on the ones that first come to mind, drugs and alcohol, but I think there are two reasons not to focus solely on just those. First, I am not battling with either one of those addictions. Because of this, I can only talk with authority to a certain degree. There is something that rings false when someone who hasn’t been in the trenches starts telling you what the war is like. The second reason is that to limit the conversation of addictions, creates a field far too narrow. It allows some of us to go, “Oh well, I don’t have a struggle with either one of those two, so I guess I’ll just zone out on this message. Let me be clear. I am NOT saying all struggles are alike. What I am saying is that we all have struggles.
Webster defines addiction as the “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal.” It also offers a broader definition: persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful. I prefer the second. I would also expand it with the phrase, “known by the user to be harmful.” There are many things that can become addicting that are not harmful in and of themselves. You might be surprised by some of the addictions. The top 10 are:
1. Alcohol
2. Smoking
3. Drugs
4. Gambling
5. Food
6. Video Games
7. The Internet
8. Sex
9. Shopping
10. Work.
As you can see, some of the addictions that have made the top of the list are not necessarily, in and of themselves, bad. Food? Work? The Internet? Sex? Those are all pretty great things…when their importance is in its right place in a person’s life. It is only when those things take on a greater importance than they deserve that we get into problem territory. In addition to that, not all addictions are alike.
In some alcohol addiction treatment programs, you are not to drink at all. Obviously, this rule can’t be applied with food addictions. I have struggled with almost half of the ones on that list at one time or another in my life. Facebook makes it pretty easy to log on, and before you know it, three hours are gone. Does that mean Facebook is evil? No. It has been of great use in my ministry in staying in touch with people and keeping up with their lives when face-to-face hasn’t been possible. I just have to watch that I don’t spend half a day going to mens.style.com and the Wine Spectators website.
We are all going to have, what a friend of mine calls, “demon committee meetings.” He means beating ourselves up over the fact that we are struggling with things that are changing our lives for the worst and making our lives unmanageable. This is in fact the first step in the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous: “We admit we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives have become unmanageable.” This is a HUGE first step. It is saying we can’t do it alone.
When this letting go happens a breakthrough can begin. When we let go the breakthrough has already begun. But to just let go and do nothing else doesn’t help. It is in the next two steps that I think the real magic begins. It is a calling upon God.
In the Twelve Step programs, they don’t get all hung up on what God is or isn’t. It is not a theological debate. It is the pragmatic understanding that there is something out there bigger than we are and the bigger thing is something we need to trust in. Steps two and three say it like this. Step two says, “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Step three says, “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God. “Came to Believe” and “Made a Decision” are important.
It is what Paul has done. Did you hear it in the scripture? Paul says, “In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret.” Paul, who many consider the first and greatest evangelist, had to LEARN to put his trust in God. This does not sound like something that came easy to Paul and we know from looking at his life, he did not have it easy. There were ship wrecks, jail time, and disappointment. His life was far from easy.
What he is telling us is that by putting his trust in Christ…in his “higher power, as he understands God to be,” he has found contentment. He did NOT find an easy life, just one in which he could rest. Isn’t that what so many of us want who are struggling with addictions and other challenges? We want rest. God gives us that. In fact, God’s gifts are two-fold: first God gives us rest by teaching us to let go and let God. We don’t have to take the ball and run with it, carrying the entire team on our back. It means that we participate but don’t do it all. We are always in partnership with God in our lives.
The second thing putting our trust in God does for us is to give us strength. It reminds us that the power of God is within us and it is through this power that we are able to do ANYTHING. Not by our own greatness, but through the greatness that is present in each and every one of us.
Drugs and alcohol and porn and gambling are no match for God when we tap into that strength that lies at our core. The scripture doesn’t say I can do some things through God, most of the time, if the weather’s good. It says I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.
When we release our struggles to God, handing them over and saying I can’t do this without you, we are beginning to turn the key that will release a power partnership that is without peer. Challenges, Struggles and Addictions go from being, “Oh my” to “bye-bye”.