Indulgence isn't cure

Indulgence isn’t Cure.

“…better is one with self-control than one who takes a city.” – Proverbs 16.32

A boy makes his first earnings from some manual job, remembers the trouble at home, and heads for a bar. He finds a dark, quiet corner and orders some bottles of beer. When he’s spotted and asked what he’s doing there, he responds “wiping away my worries.”

If you’ve ever battled some addiction, any addiction, you know that most people get into the addictive habit as a temporary getaway from depression or trials. Hard to imagine deliberately walking head-on onto a train-track and giving yourself over to inevitable destruction. But no addiction ever introduced itself as a foe.

Addictions mask themselves in borrowed, fake, misleading clothing. Your hand finds the bottle and you pour it down because it offers some temporary relief from your present predicament. It numbs the current pain and shuts your mind completely off.

The only problem is – as soon as the effects of the alcohol wear off, your eyes and mind wake up, and you realise that the problem sat right there waiting patiently. Then it taps you and reminds you it’s going nowhere. Ignored problems don’t go anywhere. Drag them to God, and let Him deal accordingly with them.

Indulgence isn’t Cure.

Read some more of my writing here.