A worship disorder: this is how Edward T. Welch views addictions. "Will we worship our own desires or will we worship the true God?" With this lens the author discovers far more in Scripture on addictions than passages on drunkenness. There we learn the addict's true condition: like guests at a banquet thrown by "the woman Folly," he is already in the grave (Proverbs 9:13-18). Can we not escape our addictions? If we're willing to follow Jesus, the author says that we have "immense hope: hope in God's forgiving grace, hope in God's love that is faithful even when we are not, and hope that God can give power so that we are no longer mastered by the addiction." Each chapter concludes with "Practical Theology," "As Your Face Your Own Addictions," and "As You Help Someone Else."
Everyone of us is a potential addict. Eventually, every addict finds himself at a crossroads.
In a pressure-filled world, the prospect of instant escape can be exhilarating. No matter the object-drugs, alcohol, food, gambling, or sex, just to name a few-addictions lure us. They extend the promise of pleasure. In the end, they deliver emptiness, death, and destruction. What began as an escape from the hassles of life becomes a form of bondage. Addiction is a voluntary slavery. Change doesn't come easily. But change is possible!
You are bored or stressed or hurt. Something is hard in life and you want a break. What do you grab for that you hope will protect, soothe, and comfort? Whatever it is - shopping, overeating, drinking, drugs - promises relief, but never delivers. Instead, you are left feeling empty, anxious, guilty, and wanting more.
Some problems are universal. You can find schizophrenia and depression in every culture. Hoarding, however, is uniquely Western, and it is getting worse. We see houses misshapen under the weight of debris and hear warnings such as Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict that try to scare us away from the path of accumulating.
Counseling and Physiology Class: Neurobiology of Addiction (or, A Good Thing Gone Bad)
In the first chapter of the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s textbook on addictions, Alan Leshner says this: “The brain of someone addicted to drugs is a changed brain; it is qualitatively different from that of a normal person in fundamental ways, including gene expression, glucose [sugar] utilization, and responsiveness to environmental cues.”
Ed Welch talks about the curriculum, Crossroads: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Addiction.
