Steps Towards Freedom From Addiction - The Antipathy of Freedom

Addiction happens when we become entranced with, and attached to, a certain object, behavior, feeling, person, thing, or lifestyle. Addiction attaches our desires to a certain object. As we pursue these things, our lives become bonded to, intertwined with, and enslaved to them; preoccupation turns into obsession, and these things come to rule our lives. We are pursuing things that cannot satisfy. That leaves us needing more and more. They cannot meet our needs and in fact create additional needs within us. John Calvin writes that the human heart is a perpetual idol factory. An idol is any person, place, or thing that you worship, seek, and pursue before God. It is something that has captivated you and hijacked your affections. Not only is the world around us trying to lure and entice us with worldly passions, but our own hearts, our very own flesh is generating deceitful promises and ideas that snag onto our souls like a fish hook and bait. How many times do we have to pursue these empty pleasures and fleeting desires before we finally admit, confess, believe, and act according to the truth- we were made for more than this.

C.S. Lewis once said, “If you find in yourself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that you were made for another world.”

Blaise Paschal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

Gerald G May writes in his book Addiction and Grace, “I am not being flippant when I say that all of us suffer from addiction. Nor am I reducing the meaning of addiction. I mean in all truth that the psychological, neurological, and spiritual dynamics of full-fledged addiction are actively at work within every human being. The same processes that are responsible for addiction to alcohol and narcotics are also responsible for addiction to ideas, work, relationships, power, moods, fantasies, and an endless variety of other things. We are all addicts in every sense of the word. Moreover, our addictions are our own worst enemies. They enslave us with chains that are of our own making and yet that, paradoxically, are virtually beyond our control. Addiction also makes idolaters of us all, because it forces us to worship these objects of attachment, thereby preventing us from truly, freely loving God and one another. Addiction breeds willfulness within us, yet, again paradoxically, it erodes our free will and eats away at our dignity. Addiction… is the absolute enemy of human freedom, the antipathy of love. Yet, our addictions can lead us to a deep appreciation of grace. They can bring us to our knees.”

Discussion Questions

An idolater is someone who turns to an idol to fulfill their pleasures and dreams. Many of us turn to drugs, sex, masturbation, money, drinking, luxury, or status, only to find that these idols enslave us. Why do you think we turn to things that can’t satisfy?

Why do you think that we grow to worship the objects/ idols we become attached to? Why do they hold such a special place in our hearts, and how are we supposed to surmount them when we secretly hold them dear?

God alone is worthy of worship, He alone can satisfy our hearts, He alone can fulfill them, and yet how do you think we make room for Him when our hearts are fully enraptured with something else? What can we do when willpower is not enough?

There is only one power strong enough to set us free. It is the power of grace. God promises to send us grace in our moment of weakness. He promises to provide a way out every time we are looking to sin. When we fail, God gives grace upon grace so we can get back up again. His grace is the only thing that keeps us going. There is only one object of worship that will truly satisfy us and put our hearts at rest. Grace will lead us into His presence, it will teach us to trust in Him, lean on Him, and follow Him. It will lift us up when we are down. We must just keep turning( to God?). We must continue to believe that healing is real, and that the God who made us is worthy of our worship, our hearts, our lives. All other things will mislead and enslave, but He will not.