Article March 15, 1993 Issue

Combating addiction

The Christian Science Monitor

All of us have read about the challenges of battling addictions —to gambling, drugs, alcohol. And we need to use every opportunity to break the cycle of despair that so often accompanies addiction. Yet even our most worthy efforts are limited in their effectiveness if they address only outward symptoms. We must dig deeper to find answers to the temptations that lead people into a life of addiction, to find answers that give them a sense of worth and purpose. And the first step in doing this is for us to gain a more profound perception of our own value in the sight of God.

At first this might seem strange. After all, the problem is with the other people—the addicts and those who prey on them, isn't it? If these people lived in total isolation from society, that might be true. But each of us contributes to the makeup of society, its values, its goals, and its satisfactions. To break the cycle of despair, then, requires us to begin by changing our own thought of ourselves and others to the spiritual basis that Christ Jesus taught.

Once when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, he answered that it is to love God totally. But Matthew's Gospel tells us that he didn't stop there. He said, "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." It follows that as we begin to understand our own true worth as God's loved—and wholly spiritual—creation, we will find positive and practical ways to love others.

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Combating addiction

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