The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.

Psalm‬ ‭126‬:‭3‬

The temptation, of course, is to take credit. Isn’t it always?

Even in my most desperate moments, if I manage to wiggle my way out or squirm my way to fresh air, the first thing I do is begin the process of minimization.

The mind is too powerful for its own good.

I can escape the grip of addiction only to begin justifying it the next day.

I can breathe the clean air of freedom only to begin polluting it with my own schemes for tomorrow.

This is why stopping isn’t enough. We must replace addiction. There’s going to be a vacancy in our core. It wasn’t totally full to begin with, but this is where addiction set up residence and acted like it belonged for a long time.

When we’re empty, it doesn’t take much to satiate this. This is the allure of the first drink. The mental obsession that it’ll be different this time—not as bad overall, and more fulfilling within.

But whatever you want to call that space within—be it a God-shaped hole, our heart, our soul, our gut, our conscience—it is incapable of being satisfied with drinking.

This is why one is never enough. This is the chase we’ve been on.

Instead, as we arrest this disease, this progression, let’s turn to those things that are both counterintuitive and actually helpful.

Let us give thanks. Gratitude is both instructed in scripture and socially healthy. It’s one of the very attractive things that everyone agrees to be excellent.

But we still have to practice doing it. We still have to take an honest appraisal, confess our shortcomings and thank God for the grace and goodness we’ve received.

It takes a bruising of our ego because we still haven’t been in charge of our own provisions. This is ok. Praise God that we’ve been offered another way.

God, thank you for my many blessings; help me remain humble enough to see they’re from you.