NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

June 8

Scripture focus:  But I can hear you say, "If the law code was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.  Don't you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God's good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.  I can already hear your next question: "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?" No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God's good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own. Romans 7:7-13 The Message

Addiction is catching. Take note of yesterday’s devotional. When the husband called to ask a talk show host whether or not he should let his alcoholic wife return home, did you notice the problem? Here is a man who has been living with the devastating effects of a spouse’s addiction, and he needs to call and ask Dr. Laura if a week sober is enough time to forgive and forget (emphasis on forget)? I think that sounds kind of crazy.

Collusion is the term for what happens when friends, family, work buddies and even professional helpers actually aid and abet the addict’s need to use. This behavior is what has popularly been termed codependency. Collusion, literally, happens to the best of people – the most sensitive, compassionate, sympathetic, and loving members of the community are most prone to collusion.

I listened to a recent caller tell me how she spent years in a therapist’s office trying to get to the root of her addiction. When the therapist went out on maternity leave, she was assigned a new counselor – who promptly advised her to go to rehab. By the grace of God, her trip to rehab was a big step toward sobriety. Now she’s back in therapy, and seems to be making great strides at understanding some of the maladaptive coping strategies that contributed to her addiction issues.

Was Counselor A wrong and Counselor B right? Not necessarily – it’s not really about right or wrong. Counselor A knew that this client had some underlying “issues” that needed addressing. However, Counselor B believed that everything goes better if the person in therapy is sober. Interestingly enough, when Counselor A returned to her duties, she was most agitated to find that her client had been to treatment and was working a recovery program. That’s a puzzler, but again, not the point.

I would offer up the following suggestion. Instead of judging the process, can we thank God for the grace that enabled this woman to find her freedom? Grace flowed through community, and eventually the confusion cleared. One more alcoholic discovered that she could have life, and live it abundantly.

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