Blog

If anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Matthew 9:14 When life fell apart due to my addiction, it needed to fall apart. Addicts are rarely capable of just deciding to change. Transformation usually requires painful consequences. Fortunately, I…
Read more

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Matthew 9:37-38 Like everyone, I’m busy. I’m almost always behind and in a hurry. So, when I see someone by the roadside needing help, or when I encounter a patient at…
Read more

And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. Matthew 9:30-31 I’m sure I don’t know the extent of it, but I have a pretty good idea that my insistence on daily blogging about faith and…
Read more

“If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” Matthew 9:21-22 With addiction, the term eye-opener refers to a drink or drug taken in the morning to combat withdrawal or treat a hangover. Overnight, the high wears off…
Read more

Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. Matthew 9:15 I have friends who’ve never had a problem with drugs or alcohol, but who understand food addiction. When I hear them talk about food…
Read more

“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Matthew 9:11-12 To become a physician, I went to college and then medical school. Once in medical school, I understood that I was a…
Read more

As Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. Matthew 9:10 When in chemical dependency treatment, I felt more than a little hopeless. My family was a disaster and I was pretty sure my career was over. I’d killed everything good in…
Read more

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. Matthew 9:9 The addict’s problem, as AA describes it, is self-will run riot. The addict follows his way of doing things above all, not just when…
Read more

“Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he then said to the paralytic — “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” Matthew 9:5-6 Honestly, it’s easy to write a…
Read more

All the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. Matthew 8:34 Because it’s a nearly universal struggle, the topic of gluttony recurs often in one of the accountability/addiction recovery groups I attend. Not everyone has been addicted to chemicals, but most understand the struggle of…
Read more