Wine is a traitor . . . Habakkuk 2:5
As you know if you’ve read previously, eating right is one of my life struggles. I’d been doing pretty well lately, when last weekend, for some reason, we had a full pan of s’mores bars just sitting around. I must have walked by them 20 times, remaining strong, but the call of Just One Bite, eventually wore me down. I cut out just a sliver of one, believing that it wouldn’t really matter.
You know how it ended though. Half a pan later, I found those extra pounds which I’ve now been working off all week. Though it was pleasurable at the moment, Just A Bite was a lie that turned on me as soon as I put it in my mouth.
Amusing as it may be with s’mores bars, this is the story of my addiction. I’ve known sobriety before. In my previous recovery, I stayed strong for a while, but I quit working at it and eventually, the call of Just A Bite, wore me down. You’ve been good for so long. You deserve it. Just once won’t hurt. No one will know. You can have good times now and be forgiven tomorrow. Like the s’mores bars though, the pill lied, betraying me, ravaging my life once I took the first bite.
In today’s passage, Habbakuk says this is the nature of addiction. Though it promises good times, stress relief, fun, and sleep, wine is a traitor that exacts a heavy toll in the end. Not everyone struggles with alcohol or pills, but for those of us who do, we know too well the price paid for fleeting pleasure. For us, chemicals are the destroyer of families, careers, dignity, and faith. Just A Bite is a lie.
With any destructive appetite – gluttony, greed, porn, need for affirmation from others – we’ll always find that the promise of immediate gratification quickly turns to dust as it betrays us to its miserable consequences. This is the inevitable outcome of the broken appetites of our flesh. If we truly desire to know life, joy, and recovery, then we must daily do what it takes to follow God, turn from ourselves, and abandon that first bite.