I, ADDICT: THE LIVING SIN (3)

By Dan Carpenter on 2/10/12

“His only thought was to wake up and wonder where he’d get his next fix, how he’d score, and where he could sell this stuff.”

Addiction is anything but a simple subject. It is often misunderstood, ignored, unseen, and miss-assessed. It is at the center of a million painful stories, as many broken hearts, and is, by it’s ambiguity, a modern boogeyman. We’re trying to tackle it in some depth – welcome to the final section of “I, ADDICT,” continued from [“I ADDICT 2 - THE BIG PICTURE”]

Over the last two entries we’ve looked at addiction through the lenses of sin, of the word, of circumstance, and of society. We’ve dove into the realities and complexities of what addiction can be. And we keep coming back, in our parable of David (see Ryan’s sermon & pts 1 & 2 of this blog), to one thing – the following set of thoughts, “His only thought was to wake up and wonder where he’d get his next fix, how he’d score, and where he could sell his stuff.”

Because that’s addiction in action. And by addiction, as we’ve seen, we might mean any number of things, so lets be clear. The above quote is not addiction in the way you or I might get pissy if we don’t get our coffee (though to be clear – that IS addiction), or how you may be irritable without a cigarette. No. Addiction, in the context of the quote, as we’re discussing it, is bigger than that. Those addictions – caffeine, nicotine etc – are often sins but they are a completely different animal than the one were confronting here.

In the context of Ryan’s message this type of addiction is ‘sitting.’ It’s the end state of a road of choices. Choices which apply to ANYTHING – not just drugs. Drugs, like sex , work, and exercise addictions, fit within a set of addictive behaviors ‘assisted’ by the chemicals produced in the brain – which may make addiction an easier state to find. So addiction can be helped along by physical dependency, but make no mistake, this sort of addiction – the lifestyle of obsession which we see uour qoute – is both a disease and a choice.

And it is an awesomely powerful thing once planted in the soul. It becomes a persons world, this thing, whatever it is, that they are addicted to. It ‘becomes’ sin. The life were talking about. And we can do this with anything – addiction of this kind can be developed by the mind & spirit for any desire you may have.

And its not a sin of the moment, nope – it becomes, in it’s fullness, sin as a state of being.

And not a sin of the body, though as we’ve discussed many addictions can be just that as well, nope – this is sin of the spirit.

Sin as a perpetual transgression of the Law. This can only be defined as breaking the first commandment (Exodus 20:3).

Addiction is a false God.

And this, I suppose, is why addiction of this kind rips so many lives apart. Think about it:  God, for all his love and noting Christ’s redemption of our hearts, is jealous. And we are built to work with him/in him/for him. In his image (Gen 1:27). To take our earthly and physical pursuits and to replace God with them… that disrupts the entire system. It invites a terminal shutdown. A shutdown which will, inevitably, come.

Which is why it is such a crushing shame that addiction is unbearably common, pedestrian. I don’t believe that you or I, any of us, can live in this society of luxury and laxity and not know many who wrestle with it – whether they admit it to themselves or us, or not.

Because we live in a world of access to everything. In a culture of invitation to experience.

And all addiction is when you boil it down is a crossed line.

Addiction is an intent that goes to far. And we live in a world with so little restraint… it’s a tragedy waiting to happen. One small step away from the path instead of one small step closer. Addiction is a lot of those steps put together. And when you put steps together eventually you create a divergent path, far from Gods grace.

Which is so sad, because, for those addicts who recognize thier addiction, it can be near impossible to accept the reality needed to get back to the path – because of the crushing social shame. Shame for the addict! Shame! Why? Cultural guilt perhaps? Our own shame, shared out in some small understanding of just how close we are to where David lives? Who knows. It’s a problem with a lot of variables.

Addiction is many things.

But it isn’t a substance. One or another. Substances come and go in culture. They go in and out of style, in and out of moral correctness. You cannot judge your own choices, good or bad, by what they are about. You can only assess them by a standard.

By Gods word.

By your self honesty.

By combining those two with rigor and a brutal willingness to be wrong. To become better.

So, are you an addict? To exercise, food, media, drugs, violence, gambling, pornography, the Internet, money, career, sex, esteem, status, or otherwise?

How do you know?

Take a look at your thought life. It’s the only way to tell. If you wake up thinking about ________ and worry about how much or when or where you going to get more or see more or be more ________ in a near constant fashion, if you spend your hours planning and musing again and again about _______ and how it affects you, if it becomes a driver for your other choices – to earn money for _____, to allow time for _____, to make room for _______… If you place _______ before most everything else… and especially if youre scared, right now, this minute, of what someone may think of You and ________… you may have something to confront yourself on.

But thats a picture of the end of the road – the false idol.  How do we get there?  How do we go from people with prescribed and needed medications to drug addicts? From people with a desire for health to exercise addicts, destroying our bodies in pursuit of vanity (and endorphins)? From people with a desire to find self-confidence to people constantly craving validation?

We cross lines.

First we walk in step with sin, then we stand with it, and eventually sit (Psalms 1:1-3). Yes? It’s a process.  Walking in step would be, for the medication taker, taken the full prescribed dose on a day they didn’t feel so bad. Standing could be that first time they had a bad day and took an extra one. So let’s be clear where we can be: taking a pill you don’t NEED is drug abuse. Period. Have a hurt back? Take pain killers for it? Be very, very careful. Because the first time you take one because you ‘feel like it’ or think it ‘might be a good idea’ rather than when you NEED it… frankly, there’s not much difference between that and shooting heroin. No exaggeration – they’re pretty much the same drug. Would we be okay with someone using heroin because the ‘felt like it?’ No way.

This is why I’m do challenging on the subject of double standards, on judgement. Because its a slippery (slippery) slope were on.

Because the fact is that the average church going citizen has used hard drugs many times – with a prescription. It’s the nature of modern society and modern medicine. So the question isn’t ‘have we used hard drugs,’ becaue mostly we have, it’s “did we abuse them?”  Just remember – one little pill taken but not needed IS drug abuse. Which is a hard reality but… It can’t be both ways. It either is or isn’t and we can’t afford for it not to be. So be careful, be mindful, and watch the choices with medication one at a time.

And where does that leave us with the other addictions? To esteem? To money? To sex? To pornography? To anything?

It’s different for each. But Psalm 1 is fully correct – it will always follow that model.

One way or another.

But beware – the model doesn’t always move in a straight line.

Why do you think so many people who win the lottery wind up broken in drug use? Take away one addiction and people will find another. You might walk with one sin, stand with another, and sit somewhere else entirely. It’s not simple. Because addiction… addiction isn’t drug use. Or a craving for money. Or anything specific.

Addiction is the thing drug use is a symptom of. And what that is is a tendency to bow to a false god, to create a god, an obsession, a focus. And that’s the problem. Some of us – so many of us – take that God sized hole in our hearts and we place things there that don’t belong.  It’s a risk for us all.  Indeed. The only person I’d worry overly much for is the one who reads this and thinks it doesn’t apply to them. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.

So what can you do?

Be aware. And beware. Of your interests. Of your passions. Of your obsessions. Of balance. And most of all – of the Lord. Because in the end that accountability, of knowing God, of talking with him, of knowing he sees every choice you make… that could be the one thing that helps you to not cross that line you don’t realize is there; to not fall into addiction to ideas and pursuits our culture doesn’t even deem as unhealthy. He will keep you from building idols – if you let him. And He will help you to tear them down as well.

So – you may be a lot more like David than you’ve thought. Or, you may not. Either way -  David deserves your compassion, because in a race to not ‘cast the first stone’ I think we should all be really careful here. Because in a life where we live in luxury here in the US we all, one way or another, will struggle against the edge of addictive behavior. It is as common as rain in seattle. We will all sin. The question is, will we realize it?

I pray so.

Regardless, it’s up to us – all of us, together. Don’t depend on society to set the rules and don’t be afraid to be compassionate for those who struggle. If you know someone who may be wrestling with addiction to ________ – speak up. We all have a better chance having heard someone speak up.

And be careful – to separate the sin from the sinner. To see drug addiction or abuse for what they are – separate things.  To see the common thread we all share. And in the end – to see the sin in addictive choices as sin deserving of your compassion and empathy. Sin that is unutterably common in a nation with millions of unnecessary surgeries every year and a prescription drug market larger than the economies of many of the worlds nations combined.

So yeah – David has a problem. Sure. But so do we.

Addiction is a rabbit hole reflection of human imperfection. It goes allllllll the way down, a corruption that winds to our core. It can be beguiling in its surface; it can be innocent. It can be near undetectable. It can be well intended. It can be socially celebrated.

But it is always, always, dangerous.

Because in one way or another it is the choice to abandon the self to a force that’s neither you nor God… and at that point, all bets are off. It is the antithesis of our ideals, it is the life self directed and destroyed.

And that’s, roughly, what addiction is. And that’s, roughly, how you know. And the rest, from there, is for all of us to find out together.

(Daniel Carpenter participates in this blog as a service to our church – his opinions are his own and he welcomes discussion and learning of all kinds. If you have a comment or question please do leave it below – bearing in mind that when dealing with difficult subjects like this one words can, at times, be tricky & that regardless of your comments subject he will be thrilled that someone read all the way to the end of his message.)