Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, July 14, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This is the essence of addiction. The addictive substance, whether alcohol, hard drugs, food, sex, or money, promises us freedom. Freedom from the discomfort of life, something we addicts never learned to deal with constructively for one reason or another. Because life is uncomfortable a lot of the time. It just is. And I have this belief in me that it shouldn’t be. So when I can’t just will things to go the way I want them to go, and I wind up uncomfortable about it, I just want the pain to go away now. The solution? Well, for me, it was food, but as I said above, you can pretty much insert any substance or behavior you want and the formula still works. So long as I believed food was my solution, I was a slave to food. I would always put it first, to the detriment of everyone and everything around me.
Maybe it’s a stretch, but I suppose one could say that any addictive substance is a false prophet. It promises ease and comfort, tells us what we want to hear, absolves us of our responsibility for our actions, and ultimately kills us, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. The question remains whether we will follow such false prophets or take whatever action is required to free ourselves from their influence. For me that was recovery.
What substances in my life act as a false prophet, promising ease and comfort? How do I counter their message?
