Addictions and Grace
I have been reading a powerful book by a psychologist and spiritual guide by the name of Gerald Mann. The title of the book is Grace and Addiction. His thesis is that ALL of us have addictions. Many of the addictions we hear about, we recognize, but there are many that we may not recognize as an addiction, and yet, they hold obvious power over us. There are some people so attached to their jobs that their jobs give them "ultimate importance." There are others that are attached to approval, doing anything to have acceptance. The list goes on. Many of these attachments are unknown even to ourselves, but we ALL have them in some form or another.
The most important step is recognition of those things we "worship." What is it that we cannot easily walk away from? Find that thing, that person, that experience, that need, and we are close to finding our addiction.
The book has been a healthy read for me, causing me to consider my own addictions and praying that God would move into my soul and give me levels of freedom. Mann is grace-filled in his approach to addictions. Beating ourselves up, does not help (neither does allowing other people to beat us up), rather we want to see how the addictions come from a need for God and the emptiness we feel, may be space God can occupy. Here are some of his insights:
Too often, sermons on idolatry simply leave people feeling guilty...it achieves nothing to heap guilt upon ourselves; it makes us even more self-preoccupied. Instead, I think we need to keep in mind two important things that the experience of addiction and grace can teach us.
First, although God calls us all toward more perfect life, we cannot personally achieve the state of perfection. We can and should do our best to move in that direction...but we must also accept the reality of our incompleteness. Second, we need to recognize that the incompleteness within us, our personal insufficiency, does not make us unacceptable in God’s eyes. Far from it; our incompleteness is the empty side of our longing for God and for love. It is what draws us toward God and toward one another. If we do not fill our minds with guilt and self-recriminations, we will recognize our incompleteness as a kind of spaciousness into which we can welcome the flow of grace. We can think of our inadequacies as terrible defects, if we want, and hate ourselves. But we can also think of them affirmatively, as doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives. Then we may begin to appreciate our inherent, God-given lovableness. (31)
I pray that you will be devoted to recognizing your addictions and yet, be kind to yourself as you allow space for God’s grace to find a home.
Together in Christ
Stephen
