Let's face it, even as believers many of us have trouble overcoming compulsions and addictions – whether in the form of temporary obsessions in down slumps, or more serious addictive vice-trips that are holding us down for too long in stuck places. These derailing troubling valleys within ourselves may be filled with anything, not just drugs or alcohol, but privately living in fame fantasies,
or mincing greed,
or watching compromising movies or zoning out for hours/days before the screen when there is real duty and responsibility to carry out, as an escape or denial of reality,
or obsessive buying (the art of squeezing my small budget into large purchases or many unnoticeable smaller ones),
or eating too much, or eating the wrong things,
or inordinate and immoral affections for "off limits" people,
or smoking,
or adrenalin addiction to our own rushing activities (“I’ve gotta run"),
or manipulating and controlling others,
or obsessive/compulsive workaholism, chronically preferring work over relationships – justifying unkindness to people while working; work that takes us off the rails of loving others, or that shuns relating to those who are closest and dearest to us.
A common characteristic of all the above off-kilter behaviors is that love no longer governs our day; instead, our self-willed have-tos, manias, and "gotta-haves" are ruling. Escapes from reality work for a while but they descend into ruin over time.
The book of Proverbs notes that “One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one who rules his spirit, than one who captures a city” (Prov. 16:32). It is harder to control ourselves than to rule a city! We find deep within ourselves odd places, sixes and sevens, conundrums, waywardness, inexplicable subterranean explosions that we didn't know lived there, quiet detours, schmaltzy reasonings, slippery places. We truly do wrestle with our flesh.
A number of decades ago psychology departments started appearing in our universities. They were a break-off, an academic splinter, from the traditional philosophy departments. They offered very little help or understanding of the human condition, and no pathways to sure victory over tough spots, but they did bring in more students.
The newly minted psychologists’ solutions were narrow. There was Freud, who offered sexual origins for all things human (now, that helped us a lot, thank you Sigmund). And then there were Pavlov's dogs: if you can't measure it, document it and standardize it, then forget it. Carl Jung focused attention on the subconscious: just get in touch with THAT and thou shalt be healed of thine outer, public self. The growing consensus of many psychologists was that victimization is the healing agency; just find a direction to place the blame – find the event and blame it – and that will give you power (and anger) over your present mental misery.
There was, however, growing alongside this pale institutionalized academia, a program that healed millions and returned them to normal productive, loving lives, where all other psychological theories failed: A.A. – Alcoholics Anonymous. What were the victory ingredients of that program? Finding God and submitting one's helplessness to Him. It also entailed meeting with fellow peers/ sufferers of compulsions – to hold one another accountable, to keep our paths straight, ongoingly.
AA works, but you may not have to go there. A humbled soul can discover that kind of real help at any time, most anywhere. Harry (Henry) Ironside (1876-1951) wrote a little book called Changed by Beholding. It was spiritual genius. To look within oneself, he noted, only confuses us. But, conversely to intentionally look to God; casting our inward eye upward all throughout the day wins that day to love. “They that looked to Him were radiant” (Psalm 34:5). It is a miracle on command. Only the shed blood of the Son of God delivers us from the three P's: the power of sin, the punishment of sin, and eventually even the very presence of sin in our lives. It IS possible to manage ourselves, if we but keep the Lion Tamer on the podium of our heart, while the lions and tigers pace jealously around our feet, with no access to us.
Print out our little single-page 4-panel foldable booklet on the “Three Deadly P’s of Sin” from the free pdf download.
