Addiction: A Dream Stealer

Addiction robs us of our dreams and steals our joy. We end up in a state of perpetual dis-ease. We lose consciousness of God, our place in his story, and an awareness of how our choices affect others - even those we love to pieces. Our mind develops a specific way of coping with our loss of consciousness of who we are and how much God loves us. We have a limited range of emotions that we habitually experience; we practice certain behaviors that we have grown attached to using to get what we think we need to survive; we have repetitive thoughts and our thinking becomes unproductive as we habitually think about our life in limited ways. This problem is not unique to those of us who struggle with substance use. All humans struggle with loss of focus and fixations. These fixations and coping strategies are ways we deal with our forgetfulness about who we are and who God is.

[Jesus said…] I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

~ John 10:6-10 The Message

Jesus presents in his teaching time and again this idea that he came to give us something good. God demonstrates over and over how he has the capacity and will to bless us. These are not small, hungry, angry narcissistic gods who want us to feed and entertain them. God’s disposition is to love us. His power is harnessed and utilized for the purpose of restoration. Our restoration.