I was watching this talk show the other day….a show I watch most days. A young man with white hair (hint hint) interviews people and I have to say I find it utterly interesting.
This time he was interviewing a man who’s sexual compulsivity was in the spotlight. Now he was an extreme case. Sleeping with prostitutes left and right, even on the night he proposed to his wife. He would do whatever he could and go as far as he could just to get off.
He blamed it on his mind and his need to feel loved.
What I found amazing was this man’s void. He looked glazed over or as you might say “spaced out” he was empty of emotion, he was over his wife and marriage. It was almost frightening. I mean to see someone with so much sin in his life and instead of coming out and saying he was wrong he blamed it on a disorder.
Now as one who struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and lives with compulsivity each and every day I am remiss to say that is what his case was all about. He was an addict. He did not have a disease. He was not a victim of a bad childhood. He was an addict. He was full of sin and he had become callused to the sin.
What amazes me is to look at the world as it is today and to see that this is what we have become. A community and society that sees addiction not as a problem but a “disease” and we recognize sin as a reasonable response to an unfortunate circumstance.
You see when we look at addiction at the root it is sin. It is not a disease, nor is it a result of environment. It is sin. It is wrong. It is the enemy.
Looking past what we see in society and seeing what we have in the Word is what can separate the addict from the addiction. Once you build a separation then distance can be formed, then change can happen. Its a process. Just don’t become callused to what you see, hear, feel, taste, or sense. Push sin out. Bottom line.