The Addict
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Proverbs 23:29 NASB
Woe– This verse describes the alcoholic, but it might as well be attributed to any addict. Consider the characteristics. This person feels woe. What does that mean? He despairs of life. It’s all gray. His ups are downs. His downs are dark. What is the point of living if life is blah? He has sorrow. A little wordplay in Hebrew. Woe is ‘oy. Sorrow is ‘avoy, another expression that means, “Oh! What a terrible state I am in.” He has contentions. Strife, judgments, restrictions, confinement. Life works against him. He’s hemmed in, chained up, obligated! He has complaints. “Things just don’t go my way.” “I don’t deserve this.” “You should treat me better.” In the end, it’s all about me! He has wounds without cause. Ah, but what are those? “Without cause” is the Hebrew hinnam. It essentially means something given or taken without compensation, something for nothing. What’s interesting is that this word is derived from hanan, the word for “grace.” The addict feels he has been hurt unjustifiably. He doesn’t see grace in chastisement. He sees affliction. He doesn’t recognize tough love. He sees rejection. His lens is turned on the injury, not the purpose. And he has red eyes, the universal symbol of too much to drink. But perhaps there’s a bit more here. His eyes reflect a soul in danger. Red, bloodshot, empty windows into a world of torturous existence.
“Hello, my name is ________ and I am powerless over _________.” Fill in the blank.
Remove the context of wine and we find (perhaps) some familiar feelings. Do you think life is gray, bland, depressing? Do you despair when you think of the next ten years? Are you in a terrible state? Is life working against you? Are you obligated to things you really would rather not do? Do you deserve to be treated better? Do you feel you don’t get your just reward? Are you afflicted for no reason?
Ah, you’re a prime candidate for addiction. So, you eat. You drink. You shop. You daydream. You take medication. You yearn for vacation. You indulge in fantasy. You play video games. You do what it takes to escapethe mood you’re in. And when it doesn’t work anymore, you do more of the same things.
Addicts are emotionally fragile human beings who have not been able to transition from life as my burden to life as God’s purposes. Addicts lack biblical vision. They are one-minute men rather than one-thousand-year followers. The transition they need doesn’t come easily. It is extremely painful to live without filters. They get sunburned in God’s light. But they won’t die. If they stay where they are, they are already dead and they know it. Resurrection is possible but it hurts. Time to trade anesthetics for pain—and live.
Topical Index: addict, woe, ‘oy, Proverbs 23:29
Oh yes, I’ve always seen this similarity, in the two types of believers, 1 are the seemingly Victorious ones, to the ones that feel defeated, what a stark reality. Seems like the Victorious ones that I am aware of. Look at the defeated ones, as depressed. Yet they overlooked them. I think of the tribe of Dan, the ones that were following behind, they were always to be looked after, and protected. Because they were the ones being attacked from behind. Not that they should be oldest protection, but shouldn’t it be the responsibility to watch over the weakest link in the chain. When one Falls We All Fall. If a body is poked in the eye, it can only see half of what it needs to see. If a body has ear damage, it can only hear half of what it needs to hear, and so on. For I am one of the ones who feels like he’s only doing half his job. Due to not being able to help all those who are in need within the body of Christ. Yet there is encouragement.! It seems like I spend more time praying, and contemplating and studying God’s word. To see endless results, the just shall live by faith, not that I am totally just. But God has Total Justice. Within the past few years, the Lord has been so merciful to show me, answered prayer, believing and having faith, and acting upon what his word says, has helped me quite a bit., I think of Isaiah 62:1. Behold I will not keep silent, I will not hold my peace, until Jerusalem becomes a praise in all the Earth. That takes an eternity yet how many of us. Know how to wait until full salvation is Our Hope.
I must say. Skip you have gathered a group of people that weigh both sides of the scale, in such a clear way that there is balance. And unity. Take it or leave it. I I’m not giving up. Thanks for all the encouragement to all of those who are involved with today’s word.. Thanks again
What I learned from my addiction was that I denied
myself access to God’s power. And it took a long, long
time for me to actually realize this.
My situation was unique. I actually enjoyed my substances
of choice. Did I have moments of angst and remorse? Yeah,
but they were rare. My biggest surprise, however, was discovering
I wasn’t able to stop! That shocked me. I always believed I could
simply walk away when I so chose. Not true.
Long, story, short, I was blessed to receive an instant deliverance.
When I finally realized I was placing myself outside of God’s presence
and power, He intervened. One particular day I was overwhelmed by
His presence, and I told Him I wanted to stop. And in a New York minute
all my attachments and desires were gone! That was 19 years ago.
I can sure attest that “with God all things are possible.”
Good morning and thank you for today’s word.
Coming from extreme abuse in the first 18 years of life, I knew I had many deficits. Life had become about survival. It was all about what I needed to do in order to survive and have some sense of control and pleasure. I think in reflection I was on automatic pilot. Trying to run ahead to prevent further damage while the very things I was doing we’re creating and compounding damage. But I was a ‘one minute man’ and now life has become about becoming a ‘1000 year follower’. In a sense, eternity begins today.
So I WAS a victim. Whether I knew it or not everything was looked at through this lens. Poor me. I remember now that my dad used to laugh at me and say that I was always feeling sorry for myself. He must’ve known from his own experience what that was like, being an alcoholic and a rageaholic . We all suffered in the path of his reaction and attempts at soothing his victimhood.
One of the things that you said this morning, Skip, was “ he doesn’t see grace in chastisement”. Not chastisement in the sense of punishment or retribution but chastisement in the sense of teaching, molding. The sense of being hemmed into a situation where there doesn’t seem to be an out, except to be changed. Maybe like coming to the end of yourself, then living into a new resurrected life. I could continue to choose to live on in my death producing behaviors or “repent“, and I don’t mean feel sorry, I mean change my mind and thereby changing my behavior.
As Richard Rohr calls it “breathing underwater“. It seems in order to grow God has to break down so many walls that we have put up. Walls that we felt were necessary, and maybe they were! But walls that now restrict us…. we are active participants in this demolition. Thank God for every new ray of light that dawns upon our hearts!
When I couldn’t sleep last night, I was sitting at my kitchen table listening to the book of Colossians. Somehow it got me over into the book of James. James 1:2-4 in TPT (The Passion Translation) which I thought says it so well. When I was sitting there at the kitchen table I thought about you Skip and all that you are going through. I think it is for you, Skip, and where you have expressed you are at in your walk, in your journey. This is a season “of more” for you. You are in the birthing of something new and with the new and “ the more”( that can mean whatever God intends) comes a lot of upheaval, transition. If not now, at some point you’ll have an understanding of the way that God has/is taken you. For whatever it’s worth.
Continued blessings over this time in your life.
Hi Skip, so based on all that you have taught about the Greek “Western” paradigm vs the Hebrew one, we (Westerners) are all “addicts” in a sense since everything needs to fit into our nice, tidy, logical boxes of control, that we have to learn how to be “long-suffering” 1000 year followers? Maybe church has to look more like AA meetings?
It’s a start
Why would God choose traumatic curses to teach us? As I looked around me – looked at myself – the school of hard knocks seemed to do nothing but make heads and hearts even harder. People seemed to go from shock to survival mode to weary acceptance “this is just who I am and this is just my wretched life”. But none of those reactions were righteous reactions: they were all flesh reactions. I witnessed my flesh acting out in all the places I thought I was ‘righteous’, too: I checked out all the ‘doctrines’ of the flesh I thought were godly – performing for love; when in doubt, try harder; endure the pain; accept abuse and powerlessness in the name of ‘love’. Underneath, I felt God’s silence: the skies were brass. I felt abandoned by myself and heaven. I was ‘on my own’. Self pity and bitterness cried for me: I had no tears, for no one would see or care, and life would just mock them if they showed. Nothing was working. I was shocked! I thought God cared! I thought love would ‘win’. I thought I could take on evil and overcome it with good (works). I thought He would at least take pity on me!
In the silence, one by one, the sacred cows succumbed to the drought. I was left standing (well, mostly lying exhausted on the couch) with “nothing in my hands to bring”. Self righteousness had given up the ghost: self pity had committed hari kari when I caught that sucker in an odd corner trying to impersonate me in some ghastly, ineffective way. I thought at least self bitterness was a source of last gasp strength, but then my adrenals caved in. The religion of the “works of the flesh” in the name of righteousness had failed me. I had hit the bottom – a bottom I would never had seen if trauma from beyond me had not overtaken me and forced my supposed religious doctrines out on the floor to perform around their altar on Mount Carmel.
What I thought – had been taught (by example, of course) – was ‘faith’, was actually all works: which is why it wasn’t working, of course (sick intentional pun for the day)! I think I might have gone on my whole life thinking I had faith, but inserting works, like sneaky sparks of my own kindling, in the blank spaces where real trust in God should have been otherwise. Looking back, I can see that trauma had wiped out all my trust; however, along with the trust I had in things and people of earth also went self trust, trust in what I THOUGHT was God, and a lot of other faux religion, too. It was a train wreck, all right!
What was truly amazing, however, was what walked back out of that train wreck on its own feet: real, incontrovertible truth: and what a shock it was. Truth (as well as trust) was not what I thought it was! Time to start over? No. I now think that what we fear as ‘the bottom’ is the only place to begin, for it seems the bottom – on the OTHER SIDE of the Slough of Despond, of course – is the only place we can find the wicket Gate – the living Door – into the true journey to the Holy City. What my flesh dreaded the most was (when I finally opened the package because I had run out of the flesh to resist it by hiding behind false beliefs and doctrines of men) actually my real ticket to freedom. Who knew? What I thought was love was actually the ticket to hell, and what I most feared was actually the ticket to paradise. (How many lies do we really start out believing about love? All the lies are setups for disaster: they are weaknesses, not strengths.) Of all the shocks of my life, this one really has taken the cake! Truth about love has truly been a surprise to me.
Oh the many mysteries & paradoxes….