Diction, Ad

Sometimes I amuse myself with the little things in life :)
So I came across something today and it immediately made me think of things regarding the spiritual realm. Here is what I read, from the magazine AdBusters:

"What most of us experience when it comes to addiction is a pattern of continually seeking more of what it is we don't really want and, therefore, never being satisfied. And as long as we are never satisfied, we continue to seek more, while our real needs are never being met."

And at this point in reading, I realize, we, as humans, are addicted to sin.

I will try to explain my logic here. See, we know we sin. We are sinful both by nature and by choice. We are descendants of Adam, and we have original sin and so our very nature is sinful. And considering that before we accept Christ nothing we do proceeds from faith, and so we know from Romans 13 that everything we do therefore is sin. And we know we choose to sin, because we have all done it. Many times. But then we come to know Christ and we are freed from the bondage of free will. That is, we are finally able to do good because of Christ and the Spirit. We are no longer slaves to sin. And so we now have the ability to sin no more. But we still do. Christ proved that it is possible to live a fully human life and never sin, despite facing all the trials and temptations that we all face. So then, we know it is possible, through the Spirit, to not sin. But we do. There has to be a reason. And there is. We are addicts.
We need to understand this concept of "what we really want" because that is important. What we really want is to be happy, to find joy, to find meaning. These are, I would argue, the basic desires of humans. What we overlook is that there is no source of true joy other than Christ. So the only thing anyone really wants, and the only thing people need, is Christ. Think on that and see if maybe your heart for evangelism changes a bit....it is slowly starting to work its way into me, though I am not there yet. But anyways, we are all striving after meaningless pursuits that we do not really want. They seem like what we really want. They may look like it on the outside, or at least give a temporary impression that they are the true thing we seek, but really, they are nothing. And we are left unsatisfied. his is where we mess up really bad. We feel dissatisfied, and too often we attribute that to God. We think that God is withholding our happiness from us. Because, we argue in our minds, if the thing I really want (but not really) isn't satisfying me, then God must be responsible. This is especially true for believers who assume they have been pursuing Christ, but have lost sight of Him and are going after something that seems like the real thing but isn't. And of course an illusion of Christ is not going to satisfy truly. So we assume that it is actually Christ that hasn't satisfied us. I do not know how, with all the love and grace we are given, and all the pain and sorrow being far from Him causes, how we can think that Christ would somehow not satisfy us, but I believe we truly do assume this, at least down somewhere really deep in our subconscious. So then we decide to look elsewhere for satisfaction. And again we are not satisfied and this keeps going until we finally recognize that we have turned so far from God and that this is the reason our lives no longer resemble anything good or worthwhile.
We are addicted to sin. We have, as believers, entered into a recovery program, that, if utilized properly, is 100% effective. But we don't really know how to use it to maximum efficiency, or else we don't believe it really is perfect, and so we fall off the wagon and go on binges, ending up face down in a mixture of (metaphorical) blood and vomit and waste and after spending time wallowing in rock bottom we recall our program (God, Christ, and the Spirit) and because it is perfect we are able to get up again.
We are sick and need to be made well. We have the most amazing healer.
We are weak and cannot stand on our own. We have the power that raised Christ from the dead within us.
We are addicts. But we have Christ, we have grace, and we know that is enough.
No man can, of his own will and power, overcome an addiction. It is a compulsion, something he cannot, of his own will, control. It is impossible. For man, but not for God. With God, all things are possible.
I am so thankful we have a God who loves us and saves us from the ravages of this horrid addiction.