Dear Addiction...Sýnishorn

Day 3: The Shift

The bait and switch. Really, this is one of the tactics that speaks to all sin, does it not? We are tempted and lured through the promise of fun, satisfaction, and peace. But we now know that all three can be found in the Word, and that everything else that this world has to offer is a synthetic, manufactured, knock-off version of the real thing.

But this doesn’t negate or minimize the hold that addiction can have on us. Knowledge is only worth the action we put behind it. 

Do you know how bank tellers learn to identify counterfeit bills? With the emergence of increased technology, and with the criminal element getting smarter by the day, it has become more and more difficult to recognize false currency. To combat this, do banks constantly send memos within their organization, with intel revealing new trends in counterfeiting? Sure. Do they ensure that perpetrators are on a watch list? Of course. But the core of their learning is based on the real thing. Bank tellers become so familiar with actual dollars that when something seems even remotely inconsistent, they recognize it immediately. 

What a lesson we can learn from this regarding our spiritual walk and our sobriety as well. Romans 12:2 states, Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In our recovery, we are literally transforming ourselves by the renewing of our mind, learning how to cope with life on life’s terms. When we become so familiar with the authenticity of the Word of God, and the love He has for us that we start recognizing the imposter immediately.