In my last post on addiction, I wrote the following:
Each of us, in some way, has at some point in our lives tried to find Life in something other than God. We've defined goodness on our own terms. We've believed that happiness is something we can find and provide for ourselves. We have taken pride in our accomplishments, but we have also at times purposefully ignored the uneasy feeling that there still remains a lack which cannot be fulfilled through our insight, efforts, or activities. I'm not saying that we can't be momentarily satisfied, because we can. I'm not saying that it's wrong to look for happiness in friendships, fine dining, beautiful mountain ranges, a favorite pastime, or a job well-done. But, if you'll be honest, you know it's never enough; those things can never impart a sense of contentment to us that will last beyond this lifetime.
That's precisely why we still sense that lack--because only the contentment that comes from an eternal source will satisfy us. It must come from a source greater than ourselves so we are not only filled up, but also overflowing with Life. The weighty truth is simply this: only through the life of Jesus Christ can this happen. We experience Life when we experience His life.
With that context, I wanted to share with you another quote from Gerald May:
The spiritual significance of addiction is not just that we lose freedom through attachment to things, nor even that things so easily become our ultimate concerns. Of much more importance is that we try to fulfill our longing for God through objects of attachment. For example, God wants to be our perfect lover, but instead we seek perfection in human relationships and are disappointed when our lovers cannot love us perfectly. God wants to provide our ultimate security, but we seek our safety in power and possessions and then find we must continually worry about them. We seek satisfaction of our spiritual longing in a host of ways that may have very little to do with God. And, sooner or later, we are disappointed. The more we become accustomed to seeking spiritual satisfaction through things other than God, the more abnormal and stressful it becomes to look for God directly.*
Dr. May makes three significant points in the paragraph above:
1. Loss of freedom
2. We seek purpose in life through inferior means
3. The following truth becomes obscured and difficult to believe: only God meets our needs
In this post, I'd simply like to point out that because we've defined goodness and happiness and success on our own terms, we are left not only with the uneasy feeling that we haven't found an endless supply of goodness, happiness, and success, but also that because we have defined those on our own terms, we can have great difficulty believing God can fulfill those. Our definitions have excluded God.
We have become accustomed to not trusting God because we haven't believed He's good. It's difficult, if not impossible, to look to someone for help if you can't trust that they're good and will be good to you. We have been mostly discontented with God. Why? Because we tend to suffer from low-grade condemnation. Condemnation seeks to convince us that God will not provide, either because we don't deserve it or because there is a reason to fear God. We think, Why would God be good to me when I've failed and disappointed Him?
As I'm writing this, I think about those who have turned away from God and chosen to walk down their own path. In my heart, I ask myself how it is they can be content. I know they experience a lack that only God can fulfill. I know they are trying to cover it up. They're still trusting in themselves; they're still defining happiness and satisfaction on their own terms. Why? Because we, as a church, have failed to demonstrate God's love to them. They came to us and although we promised grace and life, ultimately we placed the heavy weight of condemnation on their shoulders. At first, they believed and trusted us to show them life, but because we were also under condemnation, life and freedom was not ours to offer.
I share this because this is what happens when grace is not preached. Addictions form. People are encourage to strive for God's goodness. In the end, they either give up and leave Christianity, or they stick with the machine, or they give up and discover grace.
In 1 Timothy, Paul briefly describes his former life before he understood grace:
...although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 1 Timothy 1:13
For those of you who are ignorant of God's goodness or who have experienced condemnation from the Church, I pray that you will discover grace and the life and freedom that comes to you through Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God. He's real and your decision for or against Him has great implications both in this life and the life to come. Be reconciled to God and learn that He is good, good to you, and worthy of your trust. In fact, he's been good to you even while you were against Him.
Grace=Peace,
Jeremy
*May, Gerald G. Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions. San Francisco, CA: HarperOne, 2005. Print. p. 92f. The above quote may have been edited for clarity and understanding outside its context.
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