What's Your Addiction?

I was at a meeting last autumn where the speaker invited his listeners to imagine addiction.  We were encouraged to exhale, and then see how long it would be before desperation forced us to breathe in again.  Not surprisingly, the room was soon filled with the sound of loud gasps as, one by one, we discovered our addiction to fresh air, to the oxygen that our bodies constantly need to keep us alive.  It was at this point that one of our number commented that we were desperate, but not in despair, and our thoughts digressed to a deeper consideration of these words, in order to see just what he meant.

Although they’re from the same root, there is a distinct difference between them: almost like cause and effect.  My dictionary defines despair as ‘the complete loss or absence of hope; a feeling of hopelessness’, while desperate is ‘reckless from despair; violent or lawless; extremely dangerous or serious; very bad; needing or desiring very much’.  In other words, while ‘despair’ is related to hope, ‘desperation’ goes far beyond this, and refers to the results of not having any hope.  So we can see that the drug addict is desperate for his next fix, and appreciate that much of the crime we see reported in the media is the expression of this desperation.  My friend’s point was simply that, while we were desperate for air, we were not without hope of getting it, because all we had to do was breathe.  Furthermore, since this was a Christian gathering, we also shared a far more serious hope, that found in our common Faith.

Our speaker’s aim had been that we should consider just how desperate we are to know God in our lives: how important His presence is to each of us.  It was suggested that if we were really desperate, then our faith would find outward expression, and the force with which we had all inhaled during our ‘test’ had proved a good illustration.  We were referred to Psalm 63, where the first eight verses give us a wonderful word picture of despair.  David was fleeing from Saul, who was hunting him down to kill him, and he yearned for the comfort of God’s protection and provision (I Sam. 23:13ff.)

Thoughts turned to what ought to be the expression of our desperation for God during the coming Advent season   As I recalled that meeting to refer to it in this article, I thought of potentially good lives that have developed in the wrong direction, ruined by the intrusive effects of addiction, and my mind went to John 15:1-4.  Are there things in our lives to which we are in some measure addicted?  Are they the right things?  We can say that we’re ‘clean’ through our underlying faith, through our regular prayer and worship, but are there distinct parts of our lives that we should be offering to the Gardener’s pruning knife?  What is making you less fruitful for God than He would like you to be?  Maybe now, as we ‘wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour’ is the time to do something about it.