Healing
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Cigarette smoking is more than an habit to many — it’s a religion.
Although now I know that before a smoker opens a pack and taps it against his/her palm countlessly, the purpose is to better pack the tobacco, this still strikes me as a ritual, a prelude to worship. Many smokers religiously light up, like a panting deer stopping for water at a stream.
I’ve had smokers approach me and offer me as much as $10 for one cigarette! One difference between tobacco and heroin is that tobacco is legal. And, as smokers have told me, tobacco is harder to kick than heroin. Heroine does, however, more quickly lead to anti-social behavior such as stealing and job loss than does tobacco. Cigarettes are a slow poison, and heavy use triggers sickness and work callouts and often a trip to the cancer center.
Like other drugs, once cigarettes become your idol, you crave more and more, yet you never really become satisfied, except, perhaps, for a moment. “Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.” Ecclesiastes 1:8
For decades, we have been enticed by the lure of Sister Nicotine - though ads, integration in the movies where lots of scenes of people smoking are shown, billboards, and even at one time, believe it or not, doctors promoting smoking! They should be tried for malpractice. The tobacco industry and its henchmen have glorified smoking, saying it's glamorous, cool.
Sister Nicotine and the Holy Smokes is a false religion. To restore people to health, mentally and physically, we need to reject the false gods of the world and turn to a higher power than ourselves, God.
"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Corinthians 4:4
As a Presbyterian, in the Reformed tradition, I was taught that cigarette smoking is not inherintly a sin. It was those silly Baptists (as my father was raised but changed) who believed it was wrong to smoke, drink or chew and not go with girls who do. Maybe not the chew part, but it makes a funny rhyme. But now I think the Baptists were right about smoking.
My close friend Sandi is in a nursing home. She caught lung cancer, which metastasized to the liver and brain, because of a lifetime of smoking. Decades ago, a phys ed/health class instructor in college told the class that he'd like to go down south and burn down all the tobacco fields but added "Don't tell your parents I'm really going to do it; I'm just trying to make a point about how bad smoking is for your health."
Since I started caring for Sandi, I got the idea to contact that instructor, who was a 2nd Lt. Army Ranger who served in Viet Nam, to burn down the tobacco fields with him. I looked him up on the Internet, but found that he had died. I could imagine the headlines if the ex Ranger and I actually did this: TWO WACKED OUT VIETNAM VETS BURN DOWN DIXIE TOBACCO FIELDS; THE RETURN OF SHERMAN.
Just a qualification, smoking has a more negative affect on some people more than others. And like alcohol, not everyone gets addicted, but many do.
When you get addicted to anything, it affects the way you interact with others and you may display anti-social behavior. As the 12 Steps rightly acknowledges, addictions, which are really besetting sin, are a result of a character flaw.
In the book Narcotics Anonymous I read a personal testimony of a former druggie who said that he had no moral compass with his addiction — that he would stoop to anything, including stealing from his own mother!
Being hooked on cigarettes approaches this problem.
Sandi is no exception to addicts stooping low when they crave their substance of choice to abuse. One day, she found a few bucks. Instead of me buying her meals, I asked her to use that money to feed herself. Shortly after she found the money, she asked me for money for coffee. She said she used up the money she found. That night, after she made an excuse about being tied up for awhile, I found her standing in line in a store. Evidently, she lied about not having any money left so she could use it to buy cigarettes The doctor’s assistant where she was treated for cancer told her that smoking works against the chemo and other treatments she’s been getting.
A few years ago, I overheard a conversation about some drug that gets people very high, very cheaply and is extra dangerous. I heard a guy say that this drug kills people much more quickly than other drugs. This doesn’t matter, he explained, because all the user is interested in is getting high. Nothing else matters.
Burning down the tobacco fields is not going to resolve the false religion of Sister Nicotine and The Holy Smokes, no more than just pushing out the pusher will cure the drug abuse problem, no more than Eliot Ness and his Untouchables will stop alcoholism by not letting anyone have booze.
To restore health, mentally and physically, you need to reject the false gods of the world and turn to a higher power than yourself, God. Healing is not instant, in fact it’s slow, but if you hang in there, you will be better off.
Realizing you need the power of God in order to overcome besetting sins is the first step, as found in Celebrate Recovery's 12 Steps and Biblical comparisons.
"1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Romans 7:18"
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