Healing

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Life is hard.

You’ve probably heard this phrase, and thought it yourself, countless times throughout life.

For example…

When you were a child, crying over something seemingly unfair that transpired between you and a friend...

When you spent hours, upon hours, diligently studying (every day) during a semester, only to fail the final exam...

When you worked towards paying off credit card debt and finally felt like your head was emerging from the water, only to be slammed with new bills for repairing a broken refrigerator, backed up septic tank, and leaky roof…

When your daughter got in a car accident during the very month your spouse’s father died…

There is no end to the trials of life. But like M. Scott Peck says in the opening to his classic The Road Less Traveled, once we truly accept the fact that life is difficult, it no longer matters that life is difficult. For now, we can buckle down and begin solving our problems.

The difficulties of life drive many people to find an “escape” through the temporary fixes we call addictions. The outlets are numerous—over eating, excessive working, spending too much money, binge drinking, gambling, smoking, and the list goes on... One of the most common kinds of escapist addictions comes in the form of sex.

One morning, the news reported on a man who had sexually abused a young girl. He had just been caught. Although, in no way, would I ever attempt to minimize the despicable thing this man did, I wonder if deep down he hated the thing that drove him to become a sexual monster—something over which he felt like he had no control.

Years ago, I saw a high-profile man led away by police on charges of child pornography. The words he uttered pierced me—“Thank God, the nightmare is over!” This man had been a slave to a horrid addiction which, deep in his heart, he hated with a passion.

Many of you know what I am talking about—maybe most of you do.

On another morning newscast, a sex counselor referred to the Tiger Woods adultery scandal as a recovery, saying, “Cure is a word we never use. He is recovering and will be recovering the rest of his life.”

Never cured? What a dismal future! I can assure you, Jesus Christ offers much more hope than this counselor does. I’ve experienced His victory, and I’ve met multitudes who have moved well beyond recovery.

If you fail to address the root of your addiction, then, yes, “always recovering” is as far as you will get, but if you let truth heal you, someday you can say farewell to your addiction for the last time. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free… Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:32, 36; emphasis added). He has given us hope beyond perpetual recovery. Through Jesus Christ, you can not only cope with your addiction, but truly overcome it.

Want to read more? Visit BruceLengeman.com

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