Disease Debate: Is Addiction a Disease or a Decision?

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

“(This) is right on. You did a lot of work and your study was directed by God’s eternal truth from the Bible.”
—Pastor Randal Ross, Calvary Church, Chicago (Naperville), IL

Interspersed throughout this page are video clips from Dr. Kevin McCauley of The Institute for Addiction Study. There is a print friendly PDF version of this page by clicking print.

Question: What icon from the Bible wrote the following about himself?
My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear.
My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.
I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief.
A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken.
I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart…
My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind.
My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance.

Is addictive thinking and behavior a matter of cognitive choice bearing responsibility, or is it a disease of the brain and body? Particularly in religious and church circles there is a debate that rages on concerning the issue of addiction as a disease. There is a philosophy in such circles suggesting that if addicts are delivered from the powerful control of sin that they will experience deliverance from their addiction. But what happens when delivered addicts behave selfishly and sin again? Is it possible that the selfish sin is a trigger for addictive thinking and behavior?

But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” John 5:14

Addiction is in fact manifest in human behavior, but is also manifest in the brain and mind, as well as being a matter of the soul, which makes it spiritual. Then there is the obvious physiological impact of addiction. Perhaps this is not a question to be answered with “either/or” but rather one to be answered with “both/and”.

“My head is filled with disease; My skin is begging you please; I’m on my hands and knees; I want so much to believe.” —Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails

Answer: “My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance” and the rest are the words of King David concerning his overwhelming guilt, his physical, psychological, and spiritual well being; his exhausted body, his crushed spirit, and anguished heart. It was David’s (infamous?) rant from Psalm 38, written years and perhaps a couple of decades after his famous words in Psalm 51.

Jesus said that we are to love (worship) the Lord (meaning authority) our God with our heart (the driving force of behavior), our mind (cognitive thought and emotion), our soul (the spiritual component to human life) and our body (the mechanism for actions and reactions). There is a direct parallel between the clinical disease component of addiction and the Biblical disease component of our selfish sin nature. Mental disorders are what we used to call mental illness until it crossed the lines of political correctness. If we can agree that when we refer to mental health disorders as impairment of, and damage to, the brain, then we have to accept that brains and central nervous systems damaged and impaired by addictive lifestyle behavior result in mental illness. Addictions are recognized by the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual) as mental disorders. The DSM is the manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The World Health Organization has also contributed to the characterization of addiction as a disease.

Addiction is characterized by the following:

• Tolerance. Has your use of drugs or alcohol increased over time?
• Withdrawal. When you stop using, have you ever experienced physical or emotional withdrawal? Have you had any of the following symptoms: irritability, anxiety, shakes, sweats, nausea, or vomiting?
• Difficulty controlling your use. Do you sometimes use more, and/or, for a longer period of time than you would like? Do you sometimes drink to get drunk? Do you stop after a few drink usually, or does one drink lead to more drinks?
• Negative consequences. You continued to use even though there have been negative consequences to your mood, self-esteem, health, job, or family?
• Neglecting or postponing activities. Have you ever put off or reduced social, recreational, work, or household activities because of your use?
• Spending significant time or emotional energy. Have you spent a significant amount of time obtaining, using, concealing, planning, or recovering from your use? Have you spent a lot of time thinking about using? Have you ever concealed or minimized your use? Have you ever thought of schemes to avoid getting caught?
• Desire to cut down. Have you sometimes thought about cutting down or controlling your use? Have you ever made unsuccessful attempts to cut down or control your use?

Addiction is also quite clearly a matter of individual choice, personal responsibility and   accountability. Our society does not excuse the person who kills someone who was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Someone harms another person under the influence of a drug (i.e., steroid rage) or themselves become afflicted by symptoms of disease as a result of the use of drugs or food addictions, they pay a price of some kind.

There is often times this prevailing notion in religious and church circles that only the root problem of sin be treated when the perception is that addiction is merely a peripheral problem hiding the real sin problem. If the sin problem is resolved then the addictive behavior will exterminate now that the sinner has been delivered. The problem with that is that even though the sinner has been set free from eternal consequences, the sinner will relapse into some form of sin everyday. Are we to assume that he will not relapse back into that sin; that being addictive behavior? Of course, the issue of selfish sin must be treated; but so must the sinner’s addictive thinking and habits.

What if we only treated the root symptoms of a disease and did not treat the resultant factors of that disease?

What about the issue of heart disease?

While there may very likely be genetic factors, diet and exercise play a critical role in the onset and degree of heart disease. Stress can be a contributing factor. Also, the choice to use alcohol and drugs, or to indulge in unhealthy eating habits can lead to heart disease and death. Is heart disease any less a disease because the person’s choices and behaviors increased its risks and incurred consequences? Should heart attacks and stroke not be treated as an illness if they are traced back to lifestyle choices and behavior?

What about diabetes?

In particular, Type-II diabetes is often the result of a person’s lifestyle of unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. The degree to which a diabetic suffers consequences of diabetes (i.e., kidney disease) can be a result of poorly managing the condition with appropriate care. Should diabetics be challenged about their dietary and exercise habits before being treated for their disease?

What about cancer?

Lung disease, emphysema, and other cancers can be connected quite easily to the use of tobacco products—smoking and chewing. Alcohol and drug addiction impact the rate of production and function of blood cells. Reduced white blood cells impair the function of the immune system and increase the likelihood of bacterial infection of cancer. About half of all pancreatic cancer is tied to alcohol-related problems. There are the connections of alcohol and drugs to all sorts of cancers. Should cancer not be treated as a disease if its roots are traced back to a lifestyle of addictive behavior?

What about liver disease?

This is the most obvious disease linked to addictive behavior. If so, is liver disease disqualified?

What about brain disease?

Alright… so you get where this is going.What about choices to risk everything for one’s addiction?

• Bodily harm and physical health
• Personal well-being
• Spouse’s well-being
• Children’s well-being
• Degradation of values and morality
• Emotional health
• Spiritual health
• Professional life
• Economic survival
• Conversion to morally deviant lifestyle

How does Scripture approach addiction? As a disease?

Look at the words of King David of the Old Testament in Psalm 38:1-11, when he speaks of his sin problem that was likely related to addictive behaviors regarding sexual addictions and power and control issues:

1 O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage!
2 Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me.
3 Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins.
4 My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear.
5 My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.
6 I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief.
7 A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken.
8 I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart.
9 You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh.
10 My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind.
11 My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance.

The Old Testament accounts of King David appear to reveal an addictive personality and character. David became physically ill with possibly heart palpitations, fever, muscle aches, and even episodes of blindness. He may have been experiencing withdrawal from an alcoholic or opiate drug experience. He also struggled with severe guilt and shame, as well as tremendous stress and feelings of despair. His weakness made him vulnerable in his personal and family life, his spiritual life, along with his professional life as one governing so many people under the threat of attack from both outside and inside the kingdom. Throw in the issue of irrational thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, and you have a troubled, sick man.

The Need for a Physician

If we are not willing to accept addiction as a disease, accepting only that addiction is a matter of selfish sin that requires repentance and mercy; then under that premise, according to Scripture, the addict is in need of a physician; one with the ability to deliver the addict from his sin disease. Jesus spoke of sinners as being sick, in need of a doctor.

“Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick have need; for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Matthew 9:12-13 (NKJV)

Scripture appears to indicate that the infected selfish sin nature is beyond our control; and that it in fact controls us. We are enslaved by sin, according to Scripture, and the selfish sin nature is the master. Our brains have been altered so that selfish human desire takes control.

“For what I am doing I don’t understand. What I will to do, I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. But now it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to practice what is good I do not find. For the good I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will (intend) not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” Romans 7:15-20 (NKJV)

They themselves are slaves of destructive habits. For a man is a slave of anything that has conquered him. 2 Peter 2:19 (NKJV)

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” John 8:33-34 (NLT)

Conclusion

There really is no debate. Addiction is both a disease and a matter of responsibility. There will continue to be those who refuse to accept this but it is what it is. The choices addicts make to support their addiction are often quite sick. One’s addiction never justifies addictive behavior and its impact; it only helps to explain and understand it. Addicts will always need to be held accountable for their actions. However, the disease of addiction must be acknowledged and treated. It is necessary for the well-being of us all.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

From the National Institute on Drug Abuse

Drugs and the Brain

Introducing the Human Brain

The human brain is the most complex organ in the body. This three-pound mass of gray and white matter sits at the center of all human activity – you need it to drive a car, to enjoy a meal, to breathe, to create an artistic masterpiece, and to enjoy everyday activities. In brief, the brain regulates your basic body functions; enables you to interpret and respond to everything you experience; and shapes your thoughts, emotions, and behavior. The brain is made up of many parts that all work together as a team. Different parts of the brain are responsible for coordinating and performing specific functions. Drugs can alter important brain areas that are necessary for life-sustaining functions and can drive the compulsive drug abuse that marks addiction. Brain areas affected by drug abuse –

• The brain stem controls basic functions critical to life, such as heart rate, breathing, and sleeping.
• The limbic system contains the brain’s reward circuit – it links together a number of brain structures that control and regulate our ability to feel pleasure. Feeling pleasure motivates us to repeat behaviors such as eating – actions that are critical to our existence. The limbic system is activated when we perform these activities – and also by drugs of abuse. In addition, the limbic system is responsible for our perception of other emotions, both positive and negative, which explains the mood-altering properties of many drugs.

The cerebral cortex

is divided into areas that control specific functions. Different areas process information from our senses, enabling us to see, feel, hear, and taste. The front part of the cortex, the frontal cortex or forebrain, is the thinking center of the brain; it powers our ability to think, plan, solve problems, and make decisions.

How does the brain communicate?

The brain is a communications center consisting of billions of neurons, or nerve cells. Networks of neurons pass messages back and forth to different structures within the brain, the spinal column, and the peripheral nervous system. These nerve networks coordinate and regulate everything we feel, think, and do.

• Neuron to Neuron – Each nerve cell in the brain sends and receives messages in the form of electrical impulses. Once a cell receives and processes a message, it sends it on to other neurons.
• Neurotransmitters – The Brain’s Chemical Messengers – The messages are carried between neurons by chemicals called neurotransmitters. (They transmit messages between neurons.)
• Receptors – The Brain’s Chemical Receivers – The neurotransmitter attaches to a specialized site on the receiving cell called a receptor. A neurotransmitter and its receptor operate like a “key and lock,” an exquisitely specific mechanism that ensures that each receptor will forward the appropriate message only after interacting with the right kind of neurotransmitter.
• Transporters – The Brain’s Chemical Recyclers – Located on the cell that releases the neurotransmitter, transporters recycle these neurotransmitters (i.e., bringing them back into the cell that released them), thereby shutting off the signal between neurons.

To send a message a brain cell releases a chemical (neurotransmitter) into the space separating two cells called the synapse. The neurotransmitter crosses the synapse and attaches to proteins (receptors) on the receiving brain cell. This causes changes in the receiving brain cell and the message is delivered. Most drugs of abuse target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine.

How do drugs work in the brain?

Drugs are chemicals. They work in the brain by tapping into the brain’s communication system and interfering with the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information. Some drugs, such as marijuana and heroin, can activate neurons because their chemical structure mimics that of a natural neurotransmitter. This similarity in structure “fools” receptors and allows the drugs to lock onto and activate the nerve cells. Although these drugs mimic brain chemicals, they don’t activate nerve cells in the same way as a natural neurotransmitter, and they lead to abnormal messages being transmitted through the network.

Other drugs, such as amphetamine or cocaine, can cause the nerve cells to release abnormally large amounts of natural neurotransmitters or prevent the normal recycling of these brain chemicals. This disruption produces a greatly amplified message, ultimately disrupting communication channels. The difference in effect can be described as the difference between someone whispering into your ear and someone shouting into a microphone.

How do drugs work in the brain to produce pleasure? Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, cognition, motivation, and feelings of pleasure. The over-stimulation of this system, which rewards our natural behaviors, produces the euphoric effects sought by people who abuse drugs and teaches them to repeat the behavior.
How does stimulation of the brain’s pleasure circuit teach us to keep taking drugs?

Our brains are wired to ensure that we will repeat life-sustaining activities by associating those activities with pleasure or reward. Whenever this reward circuit is activated, the brain notes that something important is happening that needs to be remembered, and teaches us to do it again and again, without thinking about it. Because drugs of abuse stimulate the same circuit, we learn to abuse drugs in the same way.

Why are drugs more addictive than natural rewards?

When some drugs of abuse are taken, they can release 2 to 10 times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards do.¹⁵ In some cases, this occurs almost immediately (as when drugs are smoked or injected), and the effects can last much longer than those produced by natural rewards. The resulting effects on the brain’s pleasure circuit dwarfs those produced by naturally rewarding behaviors such as eating and sex.^16,17 The effect of such a powerful reward strongly motivates people to take drugs again and again. This is why scientists sometimes say that drug abuse is something we learn to do very, very well. Long-term drug abuse impairs brain functioning.

What happens to your brain if you keep taking drugs?

Just as we turn down the volume on a radio that is too loud, the brain adjusts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine (and other neurotransmitters) by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of receptors that can receive signals. As a result, dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit of a drug abuser’s brain can become abnormally low, and the ability to experience any pleasure is reduced. This is why the abuser eventually feels flat, lifeless, and depressed, and is unable to enjoy things that previously brought them pleasure. Now, they need to take drugs just to bring their dopamine function back up to normal. And, they must take larger amounts of the drug than they first did to create the dopamine high – an effect known as tolerance.

How does long-term drug taking affect brain circuits?

We know that the same sort of mechanisms involved in the development of tolerance can eventually lead to profound changes in neurons and brain circuits, with the potential to severely compromise the long-term health of the brain. For example, glutamate is another neurotransmitter that influences the reward circuit and the ability to learn. When the optimal concentration of glutamate is altered by drug abuse, the brain attempts to compensate for this change, which can cause impairment in cognitive function. Similarly, long-term drug abuse can trigger adaptations in habit or non-conscious memory systems. Conditioning is one example of this type of learning, whereby environmental cues become associated with the drug experience and can trigger uncontrollable cravings if the individual is later exposed to these cues, even without the drug itself being available. This learned “reflex” is extremely robust and can emerge even after many years of abstinence.

What other brain changes occur with abuse?

Chronic exposure to drugs of abuse disrupts the way critical brain structures interact to control and inhibit behaviors related to drug abuse. Just as continued abuse may lead to tolerance or the need for higher drug dosages to produce an effect, it may also lead to addiction, which can drive an abuser to seek out and take drugs compulsively. Drug addiction erodes a person’s self-control and ability to make sound decisions, while sending intense impulses to take drugs.

Source Reference: National Institute on Drug Abuse

For more information on drugs and the brain, order NIDA’s Teaching Packets CD-ROM series or the Mind Over Matter series at www.drugabuse.gov/parent- teacher.html. These items and others are available to the public free of charge.

Addicted to Me

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project…

“I was so obsessed with me and the reasons that I might be dissatisfied that I couldn’t focus on other people… What I trace this to is a certain selfishness on my part.” —Barack Obama

What is it about our painful discomfort that impacts our lives so profoundly? Where does it come from? Why can’t we just deal with it rationally? Why can’t we control it? What does it mean to have control, and why do we place such a premium on it? We need control to best ensure our comfort, or at the very least to minimize our discomfort from being dissatisfied. We have an innate need and desire to be comfortable.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation we are challenged to change ourselves.”
—Viktor E. Frankl, Renowned Austrian Psychiatrist

What will it take to consider that our ways for trying to figure out our reasons for dissatisfaction are not working? When will we recognize that we are slaves to that which dissatisfies? What will it take before we consider the teachings of Jesus Christ that promises to set us free from our dissatisfaction?

“I can to some extent control my acts. I have no direct control over my temperament. If what we are matters even more than what we do—if indeed if what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are—then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary efforts cannot bring about.” —CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” John 8:33-34 (NLT)

Sin is the Bible’s three-letter word to describe our obsession with our self. We are born into the world selfish. Self-centered sin is the primary reason for our dissatisfaction. It’s center stage. It governs how we think, how we feel, what we choose to believe in, and how we choose to behave. The sensibly realistic consequence of S.I.N. is Self-Inflicted N-sanity.

Sin is impulsive, compulsive, and chronic. It is persistent, unrelenting, and constant to our experience. Sin is progressive, meaning that it gets worse. As our thinking becomes more distorted by sin, we feel more and more dissatisfaction and discontentment, and we’re increasingly wrought with discomfort. We continue to sin and are impaired in our ability to demonstrate self-control. Whatever the issue of sin is, we develop tolerance to its effects and strive all the more to resolve our discomfort. We develop a preoccupation with our dissatisfaction and lose our focus. We continue in our sin, even though we are adversely affected by it.

At the core of our obsession with self is a belief of entitlement. I want something, then perceive that I need the thing that I want, then proceed to do what I have to do to get it… and continue to do what I have to do to keep it, and to do what I have to do to get more of it. If I want to feel something (i.e., pleasure, happy) I will do what I have to do. It is the same for eliminating the thing from my life that I do not want. I will do what I have to do. If I don’t want to feel something (i.e., pain, sad) I will do what I have to do. It’s what we do. We can’t help ourselves.

When we understand how the brain works—that there is a relationship between the ‘go’ centers of the brain and the cautionary, judgment centers of the brain, and that the ‘go’ systems are way more powerful than the judgment centers, which by the way are also governed by obsession with self—we can recognize the sensibility—the reality—of selfish sin. This relationship between these functions of the brain shape our values and direct our moral compass, the so-called inner voice.

Our inner voice, what you might say is the inner spirit or conscience of a person, is guided by the matter of selfish sin until we choose to surrender our desires, intentions, ambitions, and motivations over to the care of God. Until then, we are usually deceived by our own inner voice. It’s often said that on one shoulder is an angel and on the other is a devil, and there is this conflict inside of our heads between right and wrong, good and bad (evil). It’s said that we need to listen real closely to the angel so that we can make the good and right choices. The problem we have is that the “angel” inside of our head is also selfish. The other problem is that there is a real devil directing evil that the Bible says, “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). So you look to the right and there sits your trusty angel inner voice, and you in your selfishness inquires as to what it might be saying. Then you look to the left and… “WHAT?” Another angel? Which is which? How do you know which inner voice to listen to?

This is our dilemma with selfishness. Selfishness can help to protect us, even at times for the right reasons. But our selfishness is flawed and prone to repeated mistakes; mistakes driven by ambition and jealousy, resentment and vengeance, shame and fear, betrayal and abandonment. Because of the erroneous automatic thinking patterns of the brain, under the direction and vision of our core belief of entitlement, we our powerless to correct its course. We are absent of control, unable to fix ourselves or anyone else for that matter, and in need of help.

We are in fact obsessed with ourselves, and are thereby enslaved by sin. We are sin addicts. This is not merely my opinion. President Barack Obama, speaking of moral failure said, “What I trace this to is a certain selfishness on my part… I was so obsessed with me and the reasons that I might be dissatisfied that I couldn’t focus on other people…When I find myself taking the wrong step, a lot of the times it’s because I’m trying to protect myself instead of trying to do God’s work.”

Jesus said it.

“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” John 8:34

And Peter, a disciple of Jesus, said,

They themselves are slaves of destructive habits. For a man is a slave of anything that has conquered him. 2 Peter 2:19 (NKJV)

For every slave there is a master. To be a slave of sin is to be mastered, or controlled by sin. We are in fact addicted to sin. We’re all sin addicts. Sinful thoughts are addictive and destructive, yet we continue the pattern of sinful thinking. Sinful feelings are addictive and destructive, yet we allow ourselves to be controlled by sinful feelings. Sinful behavior is the result of sinful thoughts and feelings, yet we allow our thoughts and feelings to control our behavior. My obsession with me owns me and is at the wheel of what I think, how I feel, and how I behave.

Jesus Christ called us slaves to sin. A slave is submissive to the authority of its master. In every relationship, the power belongs to the least interested party. The one in the relationship that cares even a little bit less has the power and leverage in the relationship. Sin could care less in its relationship with us. It seeks to kill and destroy us. The Bible says that we sin by nature (Romans 2:14). It is in our character—our make up—to sin. Jesus is essentially telling us that we are powerless, compelled by our selfish sin nature to do what is wrong and harmful to ourselves and others, even when we want to do right and good. How sick is that? It is the disease of sin addiction rendering us powerless to simply fix it.

Paul goes on to write that the problem is that “sin dwells” in our human condition. Sin is alive in us (Romans 6:17). Synonyms for ‘sin’ include ‘wrong-doing’, ‘offend’, ‘indulge’ and ‘fail’. That sin dwells in us is to say that it inhabits us, and is alive in our minds, our thoughts and our behavior. Paul is presuming that his and our problem is spiritual, alive and controlling us from within. Paul elaborates on this truth, writing:

“Now if I do what I intend in my will not to do, it is no longer I who does it, but sin that dwells in me.” Romans 7:20 (NKJV)

Our desire, remember is to achieve satisfaction or, at the very least, minimize dissatisfaction through short-lived gratification. Once we deviated from God’s plan for how to be satisfied and fulfilled, we were drawn away by our desire to reverse our ongoing dissatisfaction. Enticed by the problem of dissatisfaction, having become obsessed with it, we turned inward to ourselves to solve this problem. Seemingly unattainable satisfaction gave way to instant (yet temporary) gratification.

In the clinical arena, there is cognitive recognition of something that happened that evoked thought interpreting the meaningfulness of the event. These thoughts feed into a belief about the event, which fuel feelings that drive choices and behavior in response to the event. Behavior then renders an outcome, good or bad (positive or negative). Since the GO system of the brain is selfish, typically overpowering the STOP system of the brain, also motivated by self-interested protective intentions, behavior will ultimately lead to our doom. The therapeutic intervention for this problem is referred to as cognitive behavioral therapy—CBT. Some two thousand years prior to CBT was written a therapeutic spiritual intervention called a relationship with Jesus Christ with a strategy for a new life experience into realized freedom.

Let’s examine how Scripture deals with the problem in a similar fashion to the manner in which clinical minds have examined the human condition. Except, like I said, Scripture had a two thousand year head start.

Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. James 1:14-15 (NKJV)

Drawn away by unsatisfied desire, having interpreted events in our experience, we’ve lost our focus; we’ve lost our way. We believe we can somehow achieve satisfaction in our own way, and will act on our feelings accordingly. We have journeyed onto a path that leads us away from God. The outcome of our independence from God is our inevitable destruction. Since satisfaction can only be achieved in perfection, and we are in fact imperfect, we remain dissatisfied. We must then protect ourselves from the imperfect disappointment and consequence as the inevitable result of sin.

Paul, a godly man intending to do the will of God, writes…

“For what I am doing I don’t understand. What I will to do, I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. But now it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to practice what is good I do not find. For the good I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will (intend) not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” Romans 7:15-20 (NKJV)

Ambivalence is wanting things equally that are in direct opposition to each other. It is having the same motivation to pursue things that means to have the one thing means losing the other thing. Game shows and reality shows on television always involve risk. The contestant has won enough money to be comfortable for a long time, but can risk it for more money to be comfortable for life. Even though the odds are stacked against the contestant winning the jackpot, he considers risking everything he has already won to win it all. He has to weigh what he has to gain against what he has to lose. This is ambivalence. Those who are thinking about cheating on a test or on their spouse wrestle in much the same way. Cheating spouses will put their marriages and families on the line for temporary self gratification.

Giving in to ambivalence means the risk of losing everything for a shortcut to perceived happiness. The same can be said for risking the provision, peace and joy that comes from a life surrendered to God’s will versus those fleeting moments of indulgent self-gratification. Ambivalence is resistance to recovery from selfish sin God’s way. It will go a long way toward fueling the belief of entitlement at the core of it all.

The difference between gratification and satisfaction may appear to be subtle, but there is a clear distinction. Gratification is the feeling that comes while receiving something; has an ambitious quality to it, and is often short-lived. Satisfaction is derived from healthy give and take, and has a gracious loving quality to it. There is no jealousy or resentment in true satisfied contentment. Ingredients of satisfaction include mercy, peace, and joy. There is often pain and suffering involved, perhaps even death of some kind, leading to the recovery of something that was lost and is then found; something that was broken is then restored. There is reconciliation and even a kind of resurrection, transformation, rebirth, or renewal.

Our minds, however, are not easily interested in the attainment, or pursuit, of satisfied contentment. Rather, we tend to settle for gratification for the “15 minutes” of it that we get to enjoy. Then, it is back to the grind of our perpetual struggle to find what we think that we want and need, searching desperately for another glimpse of heaven in our day-to-day life, which when we see it, is usually a counterfeit; a picture painted by selfish desire (and influenced by evil disguised as something positive) of how good our life can look when we do things motivated by selfish ambition.

For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. James 3:16 (NLT)

Apostle Paul understood this problem. Even those of us trying to be godly in relationship with God, struggle everyday when we buy into the lies of our selfishly ambitious motivations. He speaks in Romans of our intention to do that which is right and appropriate in the sight of God. The problem is that each of us has this addictive sin nature. Even the Apostle Paul, someone who encountered the risen Christ, someone who owed Jesus his life after persecuting God’s people, someone who suffered a great deal for the sake of the gospel, someone who wrote scripture after turning his life over to God, struggled with the ambivalence because of his addiction to sin. Paul loved Jesus. He fully comprehended that to surrender to the will of God meant putting an end to his constant struggle with inevitable failure and eminent destruction as the consequence of indulgent sin. Paul had experienced so much peace and fulfillment in his life surrendered to God, yet had times when he gave in to his selfish desires that resulted in bad choices with destructive consequences. We can love Jesus and yet still we sin.

Paul wrote that even though he intends to do what is right, he continues to blow it. He suggests that this issue of self-obsession resulting in addiction to sin is sick. He suggests that the addiction to sin is so strong that we are powerless against the control of sin dwelling in us provoking us. This begs the question, “I thought Jesus said if we follow his teachings we are indeed free?”

Jesus referred to sin as sickness and referred to himself as a physician for those who are sick. He came for sick sinners in need of a physician.

“Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick have need; for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Matthew 9:12-13 (NKJV)

The point is this, though we are sick with the disease of sin and cannot heal ourselves; there is one in Jesus Christ with power and authority over the sin disease. As we are forgiven of our sin, the Bible says we are healed of its consequences. The law of sin can no longer defeat us. We will still experience its effects as long as we’re on planet earth—life happens—but we are no longer owned by the will of sin. We may not always feel free, but we are free from the eternal consequences of sin when we are submitted to the will and care of God.

The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
James 5:15 (NKJV)

Turn away from the selfishness that comes natural to you and turn toward the one that can take you way beyond settling for the short-lived gratification that has a whole lot of pain attached to it, into a place of satisfied contentment, where you can know by experience mercy, peace, joy and freedom from generous beautiful God who loves you and wants to fellowship with you in relationship with the Sympathetic Savior, Jesus Christ.