I heard a very pertinent, applicable message in church yesterday.
The pastor preached on the book of Nehemiah. If you don't know the story, Nehemiah was a cup bearer for the King. , and was a Godly man. He carried an incredible sorrow for the broken down walls surrounding the city of Jerusalem. This magnificent city had been overtaken and all had fallen apart. O.K. So I am leaving out a lot of great details. But here is the crux. The walls around the city were rubble. Nehemiah had an idea. He wanted to re- build the walls. He could get friends to help.
The king gave him permission to go. The city had been defeated and the inhabitants were miserable. Their walls were penetrable. The rubble and broken walls left the city in despair and despondency. There was no protection. Any one could enter and pillage it. The economy was ruined; the leadership was powerless; the spirit of the people was defeated.
Let's talk about this in relationship to recovering addictions. I will relate it to food addiction. That's an easy metaphor. You want to lose weight. You know what to do. But you need help. You need support.You need meetings. The meetings may be boring, but they get you back on track.The meetings and the program of planning what to eat make up a WALL around you ..A strength. And you are on a roll!! But, when you are not on track, you forget the principles of why you even began.
Now let's talk about addiction when it involves drugs or alcohol.
When an addict finally admits that he needs help, he will learn to put trust in a Higher Power. That Power must be God. He is our loving Father and He needs to be asked, and He will answer. We are free agents, aren't we?
Then the addict gets sober. He gets good help. He has counseling. He learns about the weaknesses of the disease. He learns that he cannot get rid of the disease, but that he can control it...with God's help, with staying in fellowship with the meetings, with learning how to live without alcohol or drugs. It is a battle even with these aids. But the more sober and free of the influences, the more successful he will be.
Then. What if the addict becomes successful, but over time, becomes careless and overly self-confident? Soon he thinks he has no time for meetings! He stops attending meetings, forgets about seeking God's help, and advice from friends..He soon begins to weave his life into situations where there is temptation....You see, One of the greatest faults of the addict is isolating himself and thinking he doesn't need help any more including God.
His walls of protection around him begin to crumble, and he doesn't even see it. He has been lazy and complacent and has forgotten: It will be just a matter of time and the walls will come totally down.
And when the wall becomes rubble? Despair, depression, anxiety, defeat, are resident..and the addict falls.
I encourage you as parents, teachers, spouses, children of addiction...to be aware of these traps and that to ignore and fall away from what the addict knows is a reality and possibility.
And the diet? Same thing. You know how to eat, and you don't need meetings any more. you have it whipped. ha.Beware. And soon you forget what you knew and you are not watchful...You decide to just have one "little, itsy bitsy chocolate fudge Sundae.."
The pastor preached on the book of Nehemiah. If you don't know the story, Nehemiah was a cup bearer for the King. , and was a Godly man. He carried an incredible sorrow for the broken down walls surrounding the city of Jerusalem. This magnificent city had been overtaken and all had fallen apart. O.K. So I am leaving out a lot of great details. But here is the crux. The walls around the city were rubble. Nehemiah had an idea. He wanted to re- build the walls. He could get friends to help.
The king gave him permission to go. The city had been defeated and the inhabitants were miserable. Their walls were penetrable. The rubble and broken walls left the city in despair and despondency. There was no protection. Any one could enter and pillage it. The economy was ruined; the leadership was powerless; the spirit of the people was defeated.
Let's talk about this in relationship to recovering addictions. I will relate it to food addiction. That's an easy metaphor. You want to lose weight. You know what to do. But you need help. You need support.You need meetings. The meetings may be boring, but they get you back on track.The meetings and the program of planning what to eat make up a WALL around you ..A strength. And you are on a roll!! But, when you are not on track, you forget the principles of why you even began.
Now let's talk about addiction when it involves drugs or alcohol.
When an addict finally admits that he needs help, he will learn to put trust in a Higher Power. That Power must be God. He is our loving Father and He needs to be asked, and He will answer. We are free agents, aren't we?
Then the addict gets sober. He gets good help. He has counseling. He learns about the weaknesses of the disease. He learns that he cannot get rid of the disease, but that he can control it...with God's help, with staying in fellowship with the meetings, with learning how to live without alcohol or drugs. It is a battle even with these aids. But the more sober and free of the influences, the more successful he will be.
Then. What if the addict becomes successful, but over time, becomes careless and overly self-confident? Soon he thinks he has no time for meetings! He stops attending meetings, forgets about seeking God's help, and advice from friends..He soon begins to weave his life into situations where there is temptation....You see, One of the greatest faults of the addict is isolating himself and thinking he doesn't need help any more including God.
His walls of protection around him begin to crumble, and he doesn't even see it. He has been lazy and complacent and has forgotten: It will be just a matter of time and the walls will come totally down.
And when the wall becomes rubble? Despair, depression, anxiety, defeat, are resident..and the addict falls.
I encourage you as parents, teachers, spouses, children of addiction...to be aware of these traps and that to ignore and fall away from what the addict knows is a reality and possibility.
And the diet? Same thing. You know how to eat, and you don't need meetings any more. you have it whipped. ha.Beware. And soon you forget what you knew and you are not watchful...You decide to just have one "little, itsy bitsy chocolate fudge Sundae.."
No comments:
Post a Comment