NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

May 25

Scripture focus: “No other gods, only me.” (Said God in Exodus 20:3.) The Message

Would it be good to be attractively addicted to some things ( children, chocolate, cleanliness, reading, punctuality, work, weight, winning, self-image, music, movies, money, memories, potato chips) and aversionally addicted to bad stuff (anger, bridges, spiders, germs)? After all, doesn’t it seem worse to be an alcoholic than a compulsive hand washer? Did anyone ever die from too clean hands?

Truly, addiction may have degrees of destruction. But ask a ten year old how it feels to not be able to stop scrubbing their hands with a bristle brush and Clorox…it hurts. All addictions impede freedom and diminish our ability to delight in life. There is not one single benefit to an addiction of any kind.

Here’s a crazy hypothetical. Suppose a person is addicted to approval. In an effort to receive that approval, they learn through experience that people really appreciate good deeds more than bad behaving. So instead of going out with the boys every night of the week and having a party, the approval addict starts volunteering at a homeless shelter. This wins him/her lots of approval. In fact, the approval is so attractive that he/she begins to not only show up to serve food, he/she starts bringing food, paying for the electricity to run the shelter and renovates the bathrooms. The homeless community benefits from the addiction of this approval junkie. How can this be a bad thing?

The short term benefit to the clients is undeniable, but not necessarily sustainable. What if this approval addict finds something else that turns heads and results in spontaneous clapping? He/she will move on to the next thing. Then who is going to fund the place, tote the lasagna, clean the utensils?

Of course, this is all nonsensical, because in reality all of us suffer from an attachment to something or other – large or small, healthy or dangerous. But people interested in finding the life God intended for them must learn to live with nothing hidden.

The heroin addict and the approval junkie have something in common. Both are in need of God’s grace.

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