Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭21‬

Are you often impressed with yourself? This may be something to look closer at.

It can be difficult to accept help when I don’t think I need it. It can be difficult to submit to the suggestions of others when I’m certain I’ll be fine if I just get a few days under my belt.

Conceding to the severity of my addiction takes place a few times.

Initially, the blunt sobriety of the first day or two is enough to force one into submission.

Then, once reason has returned—and with it the pesky doubts of our discontented minds—we will face a turning point in sobriety.

Will we concede that despite our newfound clear head, our mind is in need of a complete overhaul? Will we admit the extent to which our addictive thinking has permeated the rest of our life? Will we confess that it we walked astray, we can’t survive alone?

Tough questions that are easy to shrug off as someone else’s problem. We weren’t so severely affected.

Maybe not. But the downside is awful steep if we are wrong. What do we have to lose by accepting a new frame of reference? What do we have to gain if we pick up some helpful spiritual tools?

For the truly afflicted, abstinence is the key. For the actual alcoholic and addict, supplanting our vices with something else is required. For the spiritually bankrupt, stepping into the sunlight of the Spirit is blinding, but freeing. For the hopeless, hope comes in strange forms.

God, show me the habits to leave and the habits to form.