ADDICTION: UNDERSTANDING SATAN’S ‘HOOK’ By Sharon Thiel
My heart aches and I find myself weeping (something I don't
do often) after reading this article. http://www.providencejournal.com/news/health/20141219-woonsocket-woman-who-saved-friend-dies-from-overdose.ece
I have watched over many years more than one person (some
very close to me) fall prey to the unique entrapment of heroin. I have seen it
destroy marriages, parent-child relationships, careers, mental, emotional and
spiritual health. I can speak without debate about the financial devastation on
families, the lack of effective long-term answers both within and without the
system. Every addictive drug has its
lure and its particular power, and I do not diminish the challenges of those caught
up in other addictions such as cocaine/crack, methamphetamine, pain killers and
other opiate or oxy based substances, as well as uncontrollable and inappropriate
overuse of alcohol. They are ALL enslavers of humanity's vulnerable. But this post was inspired by the drug I watch make
puppets out of free men and women......and I say "enough".
It is time for official response to include treatment and
help that goes far beyond incarceration, kicking a "habit", or establishing
a most likely temporary abstinence. That goes beyond often enslaving addicts to
"controllable" legal alternatives that carry their own type of
addictive properties and have health-damaging side effects over the long term
(such as methadone and suboxone). Both secular and faith-based solutions to
treating heroin addicts (especially) need to change. Both need to dig to the
heart of the reason behind the very first injection or snort that started the
merry-go-round ride that for so many ends in death , or at the least in a life
cycle filled with mini-victories followed by big defeats.
It is time to invest the considerable resources of our age
into finding why there is such a mind-boggling increase in people in all walks
of life and economic strata being caught up in ALL addictions in the first
place.
Why are the challenges of everyday life so unmanageable that
almost everyone you know is seeking escape in SOMEthing………everything from
mind-numbing excessive video-game marathons to movies that send adrenaline
surging? Or that so many MUST (not just wantto) have a drink or two every day
(and not because a doctor ordered one for heart health)! Or that people who
outgrew a desire for marijuana use decades past are finding themselves pleased
to hear of the legalization in some areas, and saying yes to an offered joint
for the first time since college.
The days ARE dark with increasing violence, and instability
increasing in areas of life where humans traditionally need to feel secure.
Examples blare from the TV screen and the headlines of newspapers and online
news sources, showing results from good actions are somehow no longer reliable
or somehow "safe", and that the world is increasingly filled with
people blinded by their focus on things that negate the very value of
human....no, of ALL life!
For me, the answer to all of these and all other issues is
found in the knowledge that the Creator of all things is NOT some pie in the
sky white bearded Santa Claus on one side, and Attila the Hun-type on his
reverse side; a 'god' who sits in distant judgmental observation of all things,
and dreams up ways to make life hard, and hope impossible to find without yards
of entangling do's and don'ts strung together and wrapped around us.
The Lord created us all free in will, and with that freedom
humanity has made itself prisoner...... to the quest for immediate happiness,
pleasure, and acquisition of "stuff", which inspires fear of loss,
greed and selfishness, with focus on material possessions, personal power, personal image, and more……I could go on for
days with that list.
Sadly, most of all, humanity has made itself prisoner to
misunderstanding its Creator, and the Creator's very purpose and plan for humanity
and all of Creation. Some are prisoners because they dismiss the very
possibility of the Creator, then wonder why they have an emptiness inside that
nothing they do seems to fill (for we were made for a love and fellowship with
the Creator that nothing else can fulfill).
Some are prisoners because they feel they must put the
Creator in a box, and totally understand everything about Him and His
teachings, being focused on not displeasing a god of their own design, and
living in fear they do not even recognize.
Some are prisoners because they refuse to use the brain they
were provided with from birth to see that the Creator has revealed much of what
He desires of us, as well as His plans and hopes for us, in the original
autographs of Scripture, and in the true meaning of the words in their original
language and context. They depend on traditional understanding, faith in ‘gods’
and prophets who did not die and return to life in victory over death; or on
the opinions of others for their spiritual understanding.
These last prisoners are most at risk of disappointment and
disillusionment because they have no fixed star upon which to plot their course
of life, and their understanding waxes and wanes like the moon herself.
These choices of how to think, believe and live are in their
own way, addictions. Oh yes, they are.
When you have been locked in a mindset for so long that even the HINT of
a need to reexamine, pray and ponder throws you into a state of panic, fear, or
anger, be assured that you are presenting signs of being addicted in
thought......seemingly immovably stuck on concepts and constructs presented to
you over time by OTHER persons, who in their turn had come to a fixed point
without deeply examining the merits and detriments of the points
presented.
The answer to all of the above is Jesus Christ. The
eternally existent Son of God, Whose very voice spoke the universe.....the
world and all that is of it, into
existence, and who loves this Creation so much that He came to earth in the
form of a man, as a baby, fully human and fully God, to live a blameless life;
showing us how to live agape....the love that chooses the good of others before
self....and who allowed the ignorance of humanity to put Him to death so that
He could return to life victorious three days later and end the fear of death
for all who recognize Him for Who He is.
Without fear of death....without concern about annihilation
of self......all other fears can be put to rest, and there is no need to be
dependent upon any substance, anything material, anything euphoric, anything
that takes you prisoner and makes you need it so much you feel pain and torment
without it......such as drugs, or alcohol, of the presence of a person or an
activity. In Jesus we find freedom to
feel joy in the midst of circumstances that once would have caused us fear and
pain; we no longer need to lash out in anger, or self-defense, or pride.
Only being in a place of trusting Jesus Christ for all that
is needful for life will allow that to happen. Most addicts who find Jesus,
still do not completely embrace the truth that they really are FREE;that there
is not "something different" about them that means they cannot
win the battle against their addiction, their past hurts or history of hurting,
their "sin" for want of a better word. The hook of addiction is the lie of Satan
that some substance or ‘thing’, or the desire for it, or the dependency upon
it, is stronger than the Creator of all things.....and what a lie that is!
A teacher I once knew was wont to say, "Lord, make me
willing to be made willing", and that is the secret to all power over ALL
the traps in life. Even the Faith in Him and His power to set us free is a gift
from Him, it is not of our making (or even in our power to create)! The ONLY power we have is the power to surrender
our will, and the miracle happens when that surrender is finally to the One who
gave us that power in the first place, instead of surrendering it to the enemy
of our souls, or the lusts and pains of the flesh that we daily surrender to
without even noticing, or acknowledging is the fact of the matter!
So, while it may seem I have been all over the landscape in
this post, I really have not. Human
beings are all dependency vulnerable! Every living thing begins with first
breath to be dependent...addicted, if you will.....starting with the need for
air, then for nourishment and sleep and protection from the elements. As humans
grow, they naturally form dependency on other things, and no one can really say
precisely how those things are chosen.
Oh, nurture by parents or caregivers certainly plays a role,
as do the genetic influences with which humans are born, but by the time a
human comes to a place of deciding whether or not to allow a substance to
"own" their lives (and any drug/alcohol or other inappropriate
behavior addict will sooner or later come to recognize, that is exactly what is
going on in the dependency they find is out of control) they have learned 'how'
to yield up their power to the feeling, or the freedom from feeling, that the
addiction offers, and Satan’s hook is set.
It is time to address the problem of addiction from the honest
perspective of truth instead of having those who have not, for whatever
fortunate reason, fallen prey to inappropriate dependencies, standing in
judgment and impatience of those who have; failing to address the root cause of what
caused that aforementioned first, potentially deadly, step into the risk of
dependency from the start. Once addressing
that becomes a priority, and secrets become revealed and lose their power,
there is hope for those who truly wish to be free. Hope that they may find what
I believe is the answer that lies with our Creator and His provision for the
humans He loves. Hope even for those who do not at this point choose the
Creator's way, but are willing to focus on healing their past’s power over
their present, assume healthy behaviors,
and find a focus in life that will keep them from falling back into being a
slave because it 'feel's easier’, even though reality reveals how very, very
expensive addiction actually is.
Freedom is work, but
it's worth it. Let us choose a path as a people to arm the next generation
against dealing with its feelings through substances and dangerous choices. Let
us choose a path that will shine a light on the REAL way out for those in the
dangerous world of existing dependency. It is time for the power of substances
to die so it can kill no more, for we were created for Life!
