The recovering sinner

You know, the hardest words for any alcoholic to say are "I admit that I am powerless to alcohol...it has made my life unmanageable." It takes a lot to say that because who wants to admit that something else is controlling them, much less that whatever their addiction may be is ruining their life. But, that's the first step for an alcoholic is to be honest with themselves and others that the drink has power over them. That is where they turn to for comfort, during times of trouble, for courage. They invest their time, money, and life into the drink.

We could substitute any word for alcohol though, and it very well could describe our life. It could be TV, internet, drugs, food, relationships, having to be right all the time, sports, money, sports. It could be any number of things, things that really aren't considered a taboo, but we could substitute that word in for alcohol and say that it is controlling our life, that we are powerless to it. It becomes our god. Everyone of us has been there or is there, and eventually everyone of us has to admit that it dominates our life, and it has made our life unmanageable. Being able to see and know what you are truly dependent on makes all the difference in the world. That's the first step of recovery for the alcoholic, the drug addict, the over eater. That is also the first step for the money addict, the workaholic, the internet attic, the video game attic, the relationship-aholic. That is the first step for us, as humans who are sinners and imperfect; to admit that we are dependent on something else other than God. That we, like my friend Keith Rustin said, are all recovering sinners, powerless to any number of things. That these "things" having become our addictions, our gods.

How do we recover? Like the addict, we admit that we are controlled by our addiction, our sin. Not just once, but we must admit that everyday. The recovering alcoholic cannot say it once and their problem be gone. It is an everyday battle because the temptation does not go away. So, each day we must remind ourselves of what has controlled us, and what could still control us if we allowed it to. Second, to recover from our sins, we become dependent on God and not ourselves. Each day, we hand over the problems, the worries, the sins, the temptations, the doubts to God and allow the perfect Being who loved us enough to send His Son be our source of strength, our source of courage and comfort.

We are all recovering sinners. We all have an addiction to this sin nature and it can control us and eat up our lives. Can we see that? Can we admit that? Can we become dependent on the One who longs to be our source of joy, strength, and comfort.