Transcription
In his book, *Addiction and Grace*, Dr. Gerald May observes that human beings have an inborn desire for God. This is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure. Regardless of how we describe it, it is a longing for love. It is a hunger to love, to be loved, and to move closer to the source of love. This yearning is the essence of the human spirit; it is the origin of our highest hopes and most noble dreams.
Unfortunately, as Dr. May observes, our desires to love the Lord our God and our neighbor are captured, and we give ourselves over to things that, in our deepest honesty, we really don't want. These sinful passions begin to turn us away from love—away from love for ourselves, away from love for one another, and away from love for God, who is the source of all love.
With this in mind, Dr. May states, "When we look at this problem psychologically, I see two forces that are responsible: repression and addiction." Repression, as he describes it, is the attempt to quash a desire. It is a normal human response. We repress our lungs whenever they begin to hurt us too much. And so, when God, who is our deepest longing and the source of all love, does not come to us in ways that we think that He ought to come to us, we thus repress our desire for Him. The result is we try to keep our focus on other things.
Now, while repression stifles desire, especially the desire for God, addiction attaches desire, bonds, and enslaves the energy of desire to certain specific behaviors, things, or people. Dr. May observes these objects of attachment then become preoccupations and obsessions; they come to rule over us, whether we recognize it or not. The truth is, all of us suffer from addiction. These same processes that are responsible for addiction to alcohol and narcotics are also responsible for addiction to ideas, to work, relationships, power, fantasies, and a whole other endless variety of other things. These addictions, whatever they might be, enslave us with chains that are our own making, and in doing so, they become our false gods. They are what we begin to worship, what we attend to, where we give our time, our energy, even our money, instead of love.
Yet, though our addictions are the absolute enemy of love and human freedom, and still yet another paradox, our addictions can lead us to a deep appreciation of grace. They can bring us to our knees and put us in a position to humbly receive the grace of God. And the grace of God is the most powerful force in all the universe. The grace of God can transcend repression, addiction, and every other internal or external power that seeks to oppress the freedom of a human heart. Grace, according to Dr. May, is where our hope for freedom from all addiction lies. Instead of being attached through desire to an addiction, grace gives us the power to experience detachment, or the liberation of desire, to experience freedom—true freedom in Jesus Christ. Dr. May declares, "Grace is our only hope for dealing with addiction, the only power that can truly vanquish its destructiveness. Grace is the invincible advocate of freedom and the absolute expression of perfect love." Because of the amazing grace of God, there is always hope, no matter how strong our addictions might be.
The key thoughts presented by Dr. May in the opening pages of his book are paramount, I believe, in understanding the sources of oppression, addiction, and even depression, as well as the keys for our experiencing God's grace and the power of Jesus Christ and finding healing and wholeness for our addictions, whatever that addiction might be. As we have learned in previous classes on spiritual formation, spiritual formation is a shaping or forming of one's inner self to the image of Jesus Christ. For this to truly take place in us, we must quit repressing the love of God in our lives and detach ourselves from all of the idols that have been formed by our addictions. In doing so, we once again will be free to experience true love—love for God, for oneself, and for our neighbors.