Addiction and the Search for Life

Today I was sitting down doing some studying. For one reason or another, my mind strayed to my studies on substance abuse during College, and I got to thinking. I considered the addicts, people who are hooked on one drug or another, and I decided to (as much as is possible for someone who's never been hooked on drugs) try to place myself in their shoes.

The first thought I had was that these addicts are men and women, some are even young boys and girls. They are real people, with real lives, real family (unless all their family members are dead), real friends/relationships. They have desires, needs, beliefs, and pain, real-life pain.

And then I thought, why do they do drugs? What would drive them to this? Sometimes it is because they want to look cool, become a part of the "in-group" that they see. Other times they have some deep-rooted pain in their souls, pain that they want to escape. Others just want to escape from reality, from this crazed, vain, fruitless world. Others still just want to live life riding higher than the clouds, partying hard, hanging with their home-boys, maybe finding love on the side.

You know what? The drugs seem to do it for them. One fix finds them riding higher than a kite, floating beyond this world. Those who wanna party, well they definitely party. Those who want to escape, they leave the realms of reality and float in their waking dreams. And those who want to be cool, they are now "in". Everything is as they wanted.

But not for long.

You see, drugs have a crazy way of messing with you. First they tease you by giving you a bit of what you desire. And they call to you, offering you even more than first. But soon they take your mind, your body, and your soul. Everything you are becomes dependent on the drug, and rather quickly you find that all your thoughts are arrested by just getting that next fix.

And things get worse. Your body begins to crumble, your health deteriorates. Depending on the drug, your whole body can undergo massive, and nasty-looking changes, marring the physical image of God's beauty which your body is to represent. And as your mind breaks down, you can begin dreaming crazy, twisted dreams, your mind taking you on nightmarish trips to worlds that can only be described as demonically conceived.

If this wasn't bad enough, your friends, your family, your girlfriend/wife/husband/boyfriend (depending on the situation you are in), these people who are dearest to you begin to leave. In your headlong, irrational pursuit of that next high, you push away all those who love you. Who knows, those people may be pursuing their next fix as well, and they also push you away in return. And society itself has turned its back on you, so its not like you can go to anyone else for relationships (if you even want something other than that next high).

Yet, the drug is there beside you, and it is laughing in your face. You just can't get as high as you used to, and you may just be taking those drugs in order to keep yourself from dying from craving them. Maybe you tried to stop, tried to get out of the mess that you are in. But unless you were extremely blessed, the cravings for that drug consumed you, wracking your body with intense pain, uncontrollable spasms, and crazed nightmares.

They have consumed you now. And you are left alone and dead in a world of hatred, sin, violence, submission to the reign of the Devil and his Angels.

And why did you do it? What drove you to leave your life behind, leave all the blessings that God has graciously granted in common to all men? Why did you throw away sanity, love, stability, and any sense of a decent life? Why did you reject the God of Heaven, and turn to the madness of hellish addictions?

You wanted life. Yes, you wanted life.

You wanted a life of love, a life of peace, a life of joy, happiness, success, stability. You wanted fulfillment. All you wanted was to live.

And yet, you didn't find life. All you found was death, and what a horrible death it was. You sought after the riches of the world, and you were given them: pig slop. No, that's just not cold enough to describe the depraved, absolutely disgusting filth that you were granted. You were given pig dung.
And so it is with all who seek for life apart from Christ. You may not be doing drugs, but you are living for money, fame, an easy life, a happy life, a wonderful marriage. Some of these desires are not intrinsically evil. I mean, it is good to want a loving marriage, a happy life, fulfillment, to live a life of influence, to have good relationships. But I will tell you this: all of it is in vain apart from Christ.

This world is passing away, along with all its riches, its temptations, its promises. To all who have not submitted in love to Christ, repenting of your sins and placing all your trust upon Him, I beg of you to realize just how short this life is. In vain do you get up early, work all day, party all night. In vain do you seek after life's meaning, accumulate knowledge, search for truth. All is vanity in your life, and all that you do is in vain. With all of your desperate grasping for the true life, all of your crazed straining, all of your cold sweat, your burning blood, your bitter tears, you are merely trying to grasp the wind between your fingers. All is vanity for you. Utter vanity.

Nothing in this world will satisfy you for eternity. No matter what you can gain or accomplish, no matter what you do, it is all worthless in the end. When you stand before the Almighty, He will not at all be impressed by your useless efforts. And without repenting and believing in His Son, you will burn in the Lake of Fire for all of eternity, suffering under the vengeance of the Perfect Judge. Nothing in this world is worth enduring the horrific torment with which the Lord will torment those who refuse to believe.

I beg of you, repent and believe upon Christ. If you do so, you will escape the wrath to come, and escape living in vanity. For true life is found in Him, and Him only.

Some Quick Thoughts on Philosophy

Proper philosophy must culminate in a life well-lived. If your philosophy does not cause you to live a life of love, joy, peace, grace, kindness, and all other Godly virtues, then it is worthless. In fact, the primary goals of proper philosophy are threefold: to marry faith with understanding, marry understanding with Godly living, and explain and defend these three elements to those who do not believe. If these goals are not sought after, we will inevitably fall short.

The Primacy of Love

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist ...on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
(1 Cor. 13)

This chapter is one of my personal favorite passages in Scripture, and also one that makes me extremely uncomfortable at times. It gives us a perfect description of what love truly is and what it looks like, and yet it makes us realize just how far short we fall. The demands of love are impossible for us to perfectly attain. In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, our efforts to love others are pretty, well, lame. At our best, we have some selfish motive behind our acts of love almost all the time, and it is so hard to love selflessly. And yet, it is still commanded.

But how can we not love selflessly? Look at what our Lord did for us! How can we not give grace and love to others unconditionally, when Christ unconditionally gave his life for all? (1 Tim. 2:5-6, 1 John 2:2)

And yet this isn't the point I want to make. Rather, something I was caught by when I read this is that love is the greatest of all virtues. Love is greater then faith, greater than hope, greater even than knowledge alone. In fact, faith without love is useless, hope without love is useless, and correct doctrine without love is useless. Really, everything is like a hill of dung if love is not present.

And that is what we must be careful about. We must study the Word, work to gain a fuller knowledge of God, be charitable, have all faith. And yet in doing so, we must never neglect love. Ever. The instant we do, we've become useless.

Concern for the Lost

To all my brethren, and especially to my Calvinist brothers, I must ask: how do we look at people?

Let me explain myself.

When we go to a public place, or anyplace where we do not know many of the people, what thoughts run through our minds? When you see people you don't know, is your first reaction to find their faults? Do you go, "Geez, what slobs!" "Can't that girl wear a longer skirt, for crying out loud?!" "Oh look, I bet that guy's gay! Gross!!!" "Hey bonehead! Can't ...you see that's my parking space!!!!" "Now that guy's definitely a son of the devil, if I've ever seen one. First-class sinner ahead!!!!"

Or for the hyper-Calvinists amongst us (I once was one as well), what are your thoughts? Do you look around and go, "Hmm... I wonder if that man is elect... Or that man... Or that woman..." "Let's see if I can find some lost sheep in this store!!!"

No matter how much we spiritualize it, both of the above lines of thinking lack something: that is a true, godly love for the lost and perishing. How so? Well, with the first, it is obvious. You look at others as the scum on the soles of your feet, merely because you think that your behavior and heart are more perfect than theirs. But with the second, you show that your only care is for those who will be saved, and scratch everyone else. Besides, those who aren't saved are merely goats, unelected vessels being prepared for wrath. So, why should we care? God has predestined for them to burn in hell anyway, right?

Where is our love for the lost?! Where is the heart of God in this?! Does not the Lord feel sorrow over the destruction of the wicked?! Does He take delight in throwing any man or woman into Hell?! Is He indifferent to the plight of unsaved man?!

It is from a dear man of God that I learned probably one of the most valuable lessons in my entire life. He told me, "When you walk into a store, what do you think? Is your first thought, 'man, these people are gross'? If so, the love that the Lord God had for the world, and His desire for their salvation, is not in you.
"When you see others, instead of thinking evil of them, or not caring for them, think of them this way:

"'How many of these souls have not heard the Good News of God's love and salvation? How many of them are hurting, devoid of hope, joy, peace, and love? How many have not heard the Gospel?'"

Men and women of God, if we are not burdened by the lostness of others; if we do not fall on our knees, begging the Lord to have mercy on their souls; if our hearts are not full of, no, if our hearts do not bleed love, compassion, sorrow, and pity for those who do not know the Lord, can we truly claim to know the marvelous love of God?