Today was the day that I did chapel with a friend of mine. Our topic was addiction. There was a realyl great skit that a few of our friends helped us out with (Thank you!) and a video. It all went off without a hitch and was pretty dang awesome. I spoke this chapel and here is what I said:
Addiction. That's such a funny word. It can be positive or negative. I'm addicted to Jesus! I'm addicted to love! I'm addicted to serving! I'm addicted to meth. I'm addicted to porn. I'm addicted to alcohol. Do you know what addiction means? Addiction is the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice. To be addicted to something means that you are devoted or given up to a practice or habit or to something psychologically or physically habit-forming. Doesn't sound too bad if you're addicted to something positive, does it? We're surrounded to addiction every day. From religion, to drugs, people, and ideals... people are addicted to something somewhere at all times. We're all addicted to something.
Addiction isn't just to drugs, alcohol and the like. Its also feelings, desires and ideals. My father was addicted to feeling bigger than the rest of us. He needed to always feel as if he was in control, like the top dog, big kahuna. His addiction drove him too far sometimes, and most of the time he didn't realize that he wasn't in control anymore. His addiction was being in control. Now don't start assuming he was a completely horrible man, he does have some redeeming factors. He's just one of the many examples of people who are blindly addicted to a feeling.
You can also think about girls in high school, or boys for that matter. Their need to be noticed, hip, smooth. They are addicted to attention. They crave that feeling that you get when someone of the opposite sex notices you for the first time, that feeling of, “they saw me.” They need to have the clothes, hair, makeup, shoes....all of those things that make you 'in'. It just feeds their addiction. They are addicted to attention.
What am I addicted to? I would love to say that I'm one of those people who are just simply addicted to Jesus. I'd be lying if I said I was. I'm not addicted like I should be. Simply being wanted. I am addicted to the need to be accepted, wanted, loved, needed. Crazy, I know. My body hungers for the feeling of being a part of something. My soul aches when its left on the outskirts. I am addicted to being wanted.
But even with this desire, I know that it'll break. And it's been breaking, slowly, cautiously over the past years. How you ask? Because I found the key to end this addiction. You all know it, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. Its love. Love breaks addiction. Love is what calls families to have interventions with the ones that are addicted in their family. True love is what is trying to have an intervention in yours. This love is so easy to have, but so hard to recognize. Its just beckoning for you to hear it above the roar of your addictions. It wants you so badly to change. It poured out its life and blood just so you can be free from the things that hold you down. Love wants you and me. Its taken me a long time to realize this. My intervention from my addiction has been staged. Its not going to be easy. But slowly, I am learning that Love is the only thing that will take that consuming desire and replace it with something so much better. Love is waiting for you too to say that you are tired of always wanting more of something else, more of your addiction. It can't do it for you. It may seem harrowing, but its worth it. I'm sure its worth it. I don't know what your addiction is. Honestly, I don't want to know either. Its between you and God. You know what you have to do. You've heard it a million times, a million different ways. I'm sure, like me, you've given it up for a short while, just to go crawling back when withdrawal kicks in. But, if you can last through that time, you're going to find something so much better. Love.
So that's what I had to say about addiction. I hope you thought it was okay. Thanks for reading.
