Life can be rough at times and we can easily get bound by something that imprisons us. No, I’m not talking about a four by six concrete room with bars across the front. I’m talking about the prisons we can find ourselves in as we make our way through life on this spinning orb we call home. We live in a free country, but how free are we really? It’s not the government holding us captive, though this could be true to some extent. What holds us captive are the worldly things that arrest our hearts and souls. The things that lock up our thoughts. Things like alcohol, drugs, pornography, relationships, sex, shopping, food, cellphones, and money. Go ahead, feel free to add to this list. None of these things are unhealthy if done appropriately. However, we can easily become so attached to and comforted by them to the point of being chained to them. However, hope and freedom can come to us.

There are things in the universe we can’t explain. No matter how hard we try we can’t wrap our minds around it. Some things we’ll never know about this side of heaven. Addiction is described as baffling. It can be hard to wrap our minds around it. Many people who have never struggled with addiction may think the addict can just stop if they want to. However, it’s not that simple. My wife and I watch On Patrol Live and on a recent show a man was arrested after entering a garage without permission. This man was on the show a week earlier. He was found in an alley unresponsive from an overdose. He nearly died from the overdose, yet here he was one week later high and going to jail. Addiction is baffling.

Have you seen a mustard seed? They’re really small. These small seeds can produce a tree 8-9 feet tall, depending on the type of seed. This is the seed that many scholars say Jesus was talking about when He used the example of the mustard seed to illustrate faith. We tend to think our faith isn’t enough because it’s not a big faith. So, how big is your faith? I’ll confess that there are times when my faith isn’t that big. In the song “Even If” by MercyMe we find words that show us that we aren’t alone in our struggle with faith. Bart Millard sings, “They say it only takes a little faith to move a mountain, well good thing, a little faith is all I have, right now.” The size of our faith isn’t important. What we do with it is.

Addiction is a form of idolatry. It may not be the reason we become addicted to whatever controls us. The thing we cannot manage. A simple definition for an idol is something of extreme devotion. That something could be drugs, alcohol, sex, smartphone, shopping, and so on. Our idol is anything that we place ahead of God. Church attendance can be an idol if it has more importance than God has in our lives. We can identify our idols by paying attention to what we turn to in order to meet our needs or desires. Most of the time we don’t realize that we have set up an idol. Edward T. Welch states in his book, “Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness,” “We choose idols in part because we believe that they will give us what we want.” When we turn to idols we seek relief, pleasure, or to feel better about a situation. Idols are the way we escape uncomfortable situations. 

In his book, “Depression: Looking Up From the Stubborn Darkness,” Edward T. Weich talks about the culture of self-indulgence. He writes, “The myth is that “one more” will finally bring satisfaction. The reality, of course, is that it just leaves us with a desire for two more, and then three, because we find out that one didn’t satisfy.” (pg 102). Welch is talking about how the culture of self-indulgence contributes to depression. However, as I read this my mind gravitated toward addiction. From my experiences this is a great description of an addiction. Addiction and depression frequently co-occur in a complex, two-way cycle. People often use drugs or alcohol to self-medicate depressive symptoms like sadness and low energy. However, these substances chemically alter brain function, ultimately worsening depression and making both conditions harder to treat.

Jesus tells of a story about a young man who asks his father for his inheritance and once it is granted to him he leaves home to explore the world. Once out in the world he spends his entire inheritance on wild living. Broke and broken he decides to return to his father to become a hired hand. The father must have been scanning the horizon every day since his son left, because “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20). The father was overcome with joy that his son had returned and threw a huge party to celebrate his return.