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Exchanged Glory II: The OK Stronghold
<page 49>We embrace greater and greater denial, and the nuclear reactor of the OK Stronghold melts down. A chain reaction of contradictions has started that seems impossible to stop.
The false god of permissive-love has turned our morality from God’s commandments to tolerance-based authenticity. At the same time, he has shifted our strength from the power of God to the nuclear reactor of the OK Stronghold. We were never designed to handle these sorts of train tracks through our hearts.
Though we may have forgotten, the knowledge of God lies suppressed within us.
But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.
(Romans 1:18-20, The Message)
A part of us knows that in spite of our many OK feelings, we are missing the meaning of life. We were created to have a relationship with the living God, and we will never be complete without Him.
Rather than facing this truth, however, we let the excitement of modern life act as an anesthetic to keep us from it. OK feelings are powerful distractions that persuade us that nothing is horribly wrong. They give us the strength to continue in deception instead of falling on our knees in repentance.
The end result can be similar to what a friend of mine found when she didn’t want to know much about her car. One day the oil light came on, but since the car continued to take her where she wanted to go, she didn’t pay attention. A little while later the engine froze, and she realized that ignorance isn’t always bliss; sometimes it’s expensive.
When we ignore the warning lights God has given us, our hearts can spin out of control. The OK Stronghold can overheat and melt down. The danger signals call for us to turn to our Creator, but we put a shroud over truth. The pleasures, challenges, and accomplishments of the OK Stronghold keep us entertained, so we miss the growing problem.
Sometimes, our emotions are the warning light. Our conscience signals that we are headed for spiritual trouble, and our heart becomes uneasy and depressed. It is telling us to examine ourselves to find out what is wrong. Painful emotions can be a call for us to fix what is broken.
<page 50> Unfortunately, they usually tell us the wrong reason for our problems. They say something silly like, “If people would just let me have my way, I would be OK.” They motivate us to look for easy “solutions” that don’t really work. But if we can get below the surface and discover the truth, we will find that our emotions often let us know that something is amiss in the same way that pain in our body does. They signal that it is time to look for a cure.
What will the cure involve?
Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
We need straight paths for our lives. Heading in God’s direction will eventually lead to healing.
God’s word shows us the way out of our confusion. When our Parent and Child are pulling us to danger, truth tells us where to go. It gives our Adult the understanding it needs to assert itself and stay the course. We can step out in confident obedience that God will come through for us.
So don't throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It's still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God's plan so you'll be there for the promised completion. …But we're not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We'll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way.
(Hebrews 10:35-36, 39, The Message)
Many of us don’t hold onto wise confidence in God’s word. Without conviction and faith, we shrink back, compromise, and look for quick “fixes.” One such quick “fix” is drug abuse.
In order to understand the misuse of mind altering drugs, we must first look at their proper use. God gave them to us so that we could find OK feelings in extreme circumstances when our bodies and hearts are overwhelmed.
Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
Physical dying (perishing) can be painful, so God created substances like alcohol and morphine to ease our suffering. They are gifts of His mercy to those who face an agonizing death.
In the same way, God gave us sedatives for times of great emotional stress (bitter of heart). When a spouse or child dies, valium can allow a person to get the sleep they need. A strong drink can ease the pain of an overwhelmed soul.
Mind altering drugs, however, weren’t designed for long term use. They aren’t good for our everyday struggles with “not-OK” feelings – and they actually increase those feelings over time.
Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot? It's those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business. Don't judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor. Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with <page 51>—the splitting headache, the queasy stomach. Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred, reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor? "They hit me," you'll say, "but it didn't hurt; they beat on me, but I didn't feel a thing. When I'm sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!"
(Proverbs 23:29-35, The Message)
God gave us character traits like faith, hope, and courage for our common trials. A heart for God is the prescription that brings health in everyday life. It helps us find the wisdom for real solutions.
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves.
(James 1:2-6, The Message)
James says that we should be joyful in tough times. Why? Because God is making us mature and well developed through them. This growth, however, requires us to find His wisdom in the middle of our struggles.
Here is where we can draw another connection between the false god of permissive-love and addiction. It takes faith to gain the wisdom to thrive in difficulties, and the false god of permissive-love brings doubt (because he undermines belief in God’s absolute truth). Without faith we don’t find the wisdom we need for our tests and challenges, and we get hurt. We don’t experience the love of our Heavenly Father, who longs to protect us by teaching us. Pain and disillusionment enter our heart and confuse us.
Some of us choose to turn to drugs. We accept an easy illusion of wellbeing rather than pressing into the reality of it. We experience soothing good feelings, but at the same time make our situation worse by destroying our minds, bodies, and relationships.
As this happens, our emotions begin to flash their warning light. It goes unheeded; we are putting a shroud over truth. Rather than facing God, we push Him down with more medication. We lift our heart with an artificial high only to have it crash a short time later and complain louder.
As physical dependency sets in, the light blinks uncontrollably. Our hearts become desperate to hang onto a sense of “OKness,” but the methods we are using rot our grip. We embrace greater and greater denial, and the nuclear reactor of the OK Stronghold melts down. A chain reaction of contradictions has started that seems impossible to stop.
<page 52> When we don’t feel OK, it should make us cry out to God to find out what is happening. He has the wisdom we need, but we have to seek Him and trust Him for answers. He may want us to endure, He may want to show us some useful skill to handle the situation, or He may want to touch us in some profound way that will transform our lives.
Whatever His solution, our tests and challenges are times for humility, trust, and perseverance. They help us to grow into the future. But when our false gods turn us from real hope, we sometimes look to the thrills and chills of the OK Stronghold for answers.
Sexual addiction provides heavenly OK feelings for a time, but as it destroys our relationships, fills us with guilt, and causes us embarrassment, we sense something is going wrong. In desperation we reach out for relief …and find it in more unhealthy sex. In time, even when we try to reform ourselves and pursue a pure life, we have forgotten how.
Our hearts have become Chernobyl.[27] Radiation is pouring out, and the train tracks have us circling through clouds of poisonous gas with no way of escape. Demons dance as they stir toxic waste in our souls.
In workaholism our fix is the next accomplishment, promotion, or raise. We become thrilled by OK feelings of success. Fantasies of fame and riches draw us forward while fears of failure chase us from behind. Without new challenges, life seems boring. Each new victory on the job pulls us in, and each new difficulty at home pushes us back to the office. We lose perspective and control. The cooling rods of the OK nuclear reactor are being pulled out, and we don’t know how to put them back.
All of this, and more, happens because we are not deeply rooted in the truth that protects us from unhealthy influences around and within us. The false god of permissive-love has taken away our walls, and all we have to protect us is tolerance-based authenticity. What good does it do to be our “authentic selves” if our “authentic selves” are deceived and bound by sin? We fallen humans aren’t good at building our own view of life. We have done it poorly ever since Adam and Eve began to develop their independent knowledge of good and evil in the garden.
We can’t discover truth apart from God’s revelation. We end up embracing futile speculations, and our foolish hearts become darkened (Rom 1:21). Without the protection of convictions based on God’s time tested word, our emotions can be driven to obsession. Once they melt down, we feel helpless to stop them.
Before moving on, I need to briefly mention those who choose sin but don’t seem to melt down. If we define an addiction as “a habit that causes harm,” anyone who doesn’t turn to Jesus is similar to an addict. They might lack the sort of compulsion we associate with addiction, but their lifestyle habits lead to the greatest harm of all: an eternity in hell.
All sins cause damage; the damage from some is just a little farther down the road than from others.
The sins of some people are blatant and march them right into court. The sins of others don't show up until much later.
(1 Timothy 5:24, The Message)
<page 53> Deeply bound addicts have sins that march them right into court. The sins of others tend to show up much later.
Because all sin makes us into its slaves, until we find Christ’s freedom we are all addicts of one type or another.
Jesus said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave.”
(John 8:34, The Message)
Jesus has told us the way to freedom.
If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.
(John 8:31-32, The Message)
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