Running Aground, Again and Again.

Most people who drink enjoy smooth sailing with their drinks; some who need pain killers seem to control their drug intake. But some of us carry too much ballast; we misread the water depths; misjudge the winds and find ourselves running aground, again. Each time we do a bit more damage. It’s hard for you to watch us wreck ourselves; when we come to, it’s hard to see the damage we’ve done – we can’t figure out how to make things right. So, we have a little something to help us get it together.

Do you know someone who can’t stay straight? Someone who can’t let the chemicals alone, whether it’s a little bitty glass of white wine – that never seems to run dry – to smoking crack cocaine, from taking too many pain pills to downing too many beers, or bourbons? Some seek euphoria. More seek deadness – quieting pain, real or imagined. At some point the drink or the drug is the most important object of affection in their lives; at some point, the substance becomes personal, the only one who understands, comforts, or relieves the pain.

A drug of choice that becomes “human?”

Years ago a friend who did a lot of 12-step work said alcohol (and drug) abuse is the closest many of us get to seeing demon possession.

Wow. That’s dramatic, I thought.

Over the years, I have come to think my friend may have been on to something. Get close to a drunk or drug addict, and you may find the “God-shaped hole” seems filled with a deceiving chemical. Mercifully, God is filling my heart’s holes with Himself – a real and powerful protector against the deceiver His enemy is.

We all know somebody who is abusing chemicals – drugs or alcohol. We sit next to them in church; sometimes they even may be our preachers; we work with them, and car pool to little league with them. Maybe their addiction is not yet full-blown; maybe they haven’t crossed all the lines that define addiction for us.

Not yet, anyway. Pray for them! Given time they will die, become insane, or get sober.

What then can we say or do for the soul, run aground again by life’s storm and demons’ gales? As mad as they make us, as deeply as they hurt us – pray that we remember they are not the enemy. (Ephesians 6:12-13) How then are you and I praying for the souls we know who are caught by chemical addictions? How are we serving them? Would we pray the harder if we knew Satan is literally destroying them? (1 Peter 5:8-9)