For those of you reading this who know me personally, you will not be surprised when I say this — I am chemically dependent. Yes, it’s true. I am. Begin your AA analogies — “Hi, my name is Nathan…” Just so we’re all tracking on the same information, here is a list of the 12 steps from 12Step.org
* Step 1 – We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable
* Step 2 – Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
* Step 3 – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God
* Step 4 – Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
* Step 5 – Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
* Step 6 – Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
* Step 7 – Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings
* Step 8 – Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
* Step 9 – Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
* Step 10 – Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it
* Step 11 – Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out
* Step 12 – Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs
My chemical dependency is on coffee — or rather caffeine. In the morning, it is one of the first things that comes to mind as I am going about my daily routine. I make time for it. When I don’t, I suffer. My “game”, or lack thereof, is thrown off if I don’t get my two-ish cups before getting to work. If I don’t have it, not only does it affect me, but it has the potential to affect those around me. Not gonna lie, it’s not pretty.
As I thought through my dependency on coffee / caffeine and the lengths I would go to in order to make sure I had coffee, I realized something. I am Spiritually Dependent, too. I have a sin addiction in my life. There are times when I will stop at nothing to satisfy those desires. I would rather have an addiction to Jesus – that’s a little “Carman” nugget for some of you hardcore Christian music fans of the 80′s. Go ahead and click on the link — I’ll wait. It’s worth a look and a laugh, but come back (please).
In the morning, I want God to be one of the first things that comes to mind as I am going about my daily routine. I need to make time for Him. When I don’t, I know I suffer. My “game”, or lack thereof, is thrown off if I don’t take time to remember whose I am and what I am about. If I don’t make the time, not only does it affect me, but it has the potential to affect those around me.
So what are you addicted to? Are you Spiritually Dependent? Do you want to be?
-Nathan
