Healing
I have trouble writing. There is never enough time. There are too many distractions. The sun’s in my eyes. My dog ate my brain (I don’t really have a dog, and we’ll leave the “brain” part to your imagination). If none of these excuses work, I can find plenty more at hundreds of web sites devoted to excuses.
According to Steve Pavlina (www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/02/feeble-excuses/):
Excuses are lies we tell ourselves to avoid dealing with unpleasant truths. But as long as we buy into those excuses, we can never move past them. Instead of addressing the underlying problem, we merely hide the symptoms. One of the most important steps in personal growth is to uproot excuse-making and confront the real issues behind the excuses with consciousness and courage.
Ever since Adam blamed his sin on Eve, who blamed it on the serpent (Genesis 3), we’ve made excuses for our behavior. It is easier to blame some one or some thing than to admit our faults. But, as Mr. Pavlina says, we merely hide symptoms instead of dealing with problems.
This generation has seen a proliferation of “recovery” programs. Recovering one’s health or life is a noble and necessary exercise. As I write, I am recovering from a chest cold. People are recovering from floods, fires, fierce storms, financial disasters, and famines. There are recovering alcoholics, gamblers, addicts, bipolars, chocoholics, workaholics—you name it. There is so much recovering going on, we look like a society of worn-out sofas.
It is too easy to hide behind the mask of recovery. When caught in an embarrassing or unworthy lifestyle, we use the magic words, “Oh, I can’t help it. I’m a recovering Frisbee fanatic.”
Hospitals have recovery rooms, where patients can heal from disease and illness. Sickness is something from which one can recover, and, usually, the patient is anxious to be released.
When a patient continues to complain while the doctor knows he or she is healed, we see that person as a phony or a hypochondriac. Yet, when a person claims to be recovering from a bad lifestyle or choice, we tread softly and “Tsk, tsk” our sympathy. Yet there is a difference.
When doctors treat an illness, they must recognize it as such so they can prescribe the correct remedy. Wrong diagnoses can lead to dangerous mistakes in treatment.
Behaviors once recognized as sinful—drunkenness, anger, adultery, gambling, etc.—are now classified as diseases needing the intervention of mental health specialists. Even then, it is the rare “patient” who is cured—they are usually “in recovery,” with no end in sight. This is a dangerous diagnosis.
The Bible still has its lists of sins (Exodus 20–23, Galatians 5:19–21, and others). Calling sin anything other than sin only leads to ineffective treatments.
The Bible also addresses the difficulties we have with sin. Romans 7:7–25 chronicles our slavery to our sinful nature, summed up as, “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (v. 21). It is difficult to escape the power of sin.
The Bible also gives the cure for sin: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (Romans 7:24, 25). Although we are still sorely tempted by our sinful nature, we can have victory over it through Jesus Christ.
When we turned to Christ, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). We also have this promise: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you” (Romans 8:9). His Spirit gives us power over sin—we become new creatures with new desires; the old ways become repulsive to us (Romans 6:21).
When we say we are “recovering” from a sin, we admit we are still prone to temptation. But we don’t have to live in fear and defeat. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32, NKJV). “But I’m a re¬covering alcoholic/sex¬aholic/gambla¬holic/depress¬aholic/et¬cetera¬holic!”
God doesn’t give us the “recovering” option. After exposing the sins of the Corinthians and reminding them that sinners don’t inherit the kingdom, Paul states these marvelous words of freedom: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Allow me to repeat: such were some of you!
When sin beckons, the proper medication is “consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). If we treat sin as illness, we will never be cured. When we treat it as sin, we are covered by God’s universal spiritual health care—no deductibles, no fees, and guaranteed results!
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