In November we held a short seminar on Addiction with a visiting speaker Andrew Collins. Andrew, a practising psychiatrist for many years in Ireland, now works as the Director for Counselling Ministry at Biblical Counselling UK (BCUK).
Andrew sought to give us an understanding of how Scripture speaks into this problem that so many of us face and even provides an explanation for the inexplicable – i.e. why do we keep doing the very thing that destroys and harms us?
We learned that the problem of addiction is complex and best understood through a holistic lens which acknowledges the role of the body and physical drivers, the mind affected by life experiences and the environment that we live in. However, the Bible also teaches us that we humans have a worship problem and instead of worshiping our Creator we worship created things instead. We learned that desire is good and pleasure is good but sometimes they get mixed up and go bad. When life gets hard we seek comfort, release, pleasure in things that provide temporary relief but ultimately do not satisfy. Addiction is evident when we have impaired control around substances or activities or give increased priority to those things and the consequences cause harm to ourselves and those around us.
However, there is hope! “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” Titus 2:11-14
Fighting addiction is possible with Christ, by his grace he is able to save us and give us strength to say no to the things that hurt us and yes to the Lord who gives life. This can be a daily struggle requiring us to walk step by step and hand in hand with our Saviour but we also endure in community and with the help of others.
If you are struggling and would like to talk to anyone, please contact Rachel (Rachel.meynell@stmarysmaidenhead.org) or Sharon (Sharon.bedford@stmarysmaidenhead.org) and we would be happy to speak to you in confidence.
Members of St Mary’s have also attended ‘Free! Recovery’ with John and Sally Childress and have found their 10 week online course extremely helpful. For more details about the courses and events they are running please visit https://www.free-recovery.org