The Vile Song of Addiction

Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. Micah 2:1

Admittedly, I have an obsessive personality. When an idea takes hold in my mind, it’s tough to get out. When I find an activity I enjoy, I engage in it repeatedly and when I’m not doing it, I’m thinking about doing it. When I find a song I love, I play it over and over and when I’m not listening to it, I’m humming it in my head.

Aimed in the right direction, this can be useful. I now get up early every day to write this blog, rarely missing a day. Historically though, it’s more often been a destructive force. My addiction was a toxic, catchy tune, that grew into my brain, becoming a part of me.

When I read today’s passage, about those who lie in bed, scheming about how to get what they want, I knew exactly what Micah was talking about. He was talking about that song that I played repeatedly. How can I find more pills today? How can I avoid getting caught? Looking back, that song was madness, but at the time, I was enslaved, spending countless hours on it.

This is the problem with our appetites. Not everything we want is evil in itself. Food and money are not inherently bad. It is our nature though, to find a thing that brings us pleasure, whether it’s sex, social media, or drugs, and pursue it above all. While awake, we listen to the song and while in bed, we sing it.

This place though, where we put that thing that we pursue above all else, is the place where God is supposed to sit. Whatever we pursue above all, becomes our god. We may insist that we put our faith and family first, but when we examine our day, whatever we’ve spent the most energy on has become our god.

Replacing God with anything though, is inherently destructive, leading us to misery and pain. If we want to live the lives we were made for, we must daily practice singing the right song. We must purposefully pursue God above all else.