Darkness to Light | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Darkness to Light | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Fahy
01/18/23
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The claws of addiction runs rampant in our country. The deaths continue to climb every year. People enter rehabilitation centers for thirty days to a year or more. They leave and within a short amount of time they are back on the streets again using drugs. I have family members who are in the grips of addiction. They also have been in and out of rehabs for years. They believe that they can figure this out themselves. People don’t understand they can’t fix a sick mind with the mind that got them sick. They will say they are doing good and everything is okay. That their way is of fixing things is the best way.

This reminds me of Saul, the Pharisee, and his religious beliefs, and how he acted on those beliefs. Just as the addict hurts themselves, their family and the ones closest to them Paul hurt himself and others. He imprisoned and murdered Christians, believing that he was doing the right thing. He honestly felt he was following God’s will. Family members, counselors, priests, rabbis, pastors have tried to talk to those addicted, letting them know what they were doing to themselves and the damage they were doing to others. Unfortunately, many times it falls on deaf ears.

No one was able to change Saul. That is until he met the light of Jesus on the road to Damascus. His light was so bright it blinded Saul. In Damascus he regained his sight, and he recovered. More happened than God blinding Saul physically, he gave him clear, spiritual insight. In an instant, Paul was broken, humbled, and set on the road to recovery. He was free from the legalistic mindset that controlled his life. He experienced the transforming power of God. God even changed his name to Paul, and he was no longer driven to self-serving achievements after his conversion.

It is the same with the addict or alcoholic. They must meet Jesus on their road to Damascus. They must be broken and humbled and set on the road to recovery. Their ego, self-seeking and selfishness ways must be smashed the way someone karate chops through a pile of boards. Addicts and alcoholics bore straight ahead to get their next fix or drink without regard for who they hurt in the process.

Oswald Chambers refers to the phrase “white funeral” from Tennyson’s poem “To H. R. H. Princess Beatrice.” It meant a passage from one stage of life to another. Chambers used it to mean death to self and complete surrender to God. This is what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus, and it happens to anyone who puts their addiction behind them. They go from the stage of self-serving to a life of serving the Lord. Only Jesus Christ can transform a human being. Paul’s transformation came because of the marvelous grace of God. People can be healed of addiction and transformed by the grace of God no matter how dark the person’s past or how great their mistakes. It’s possible to walk out of the darkness into the Light.

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