Wounds that Heal - Week #5

Chapter five (He Led Captivity Captive) is about the cross of Christ and our addictions, which take the form of the blatant addictions, such as drugs, alcoholism, sex, and the more subtle ones, such as workaholism, food, control, people-pleasing, perfectionism, etc.

For shortage of time this week, I will simply quote from much of this chapter to give you a taste of its contents.

Stephen Seamands tells of Gary Moon’s observation after years of counseling as a clinical psychologist: he was struck by how unique each person’s problems were and yet there was also an “amazing similarity” in them, common threads running through their stories. He concluded that with each person with whom he had multiple visits, three distinct themes come up. These themes are:

• Compassion deficits
• Behavioral narcotics
• The two selves

Compassion deficits: this refers to failure to receive unconditional love and compassion, particularly in the formative years of one’s life. Just like a car engine needs oil to run smoothly, so human beings need unconditional love to function. After many years of functioning without this, eventually the damage to the human soul is such that he/she must find some way to cope with the pain and emptiness in order to continue. The way we do this is to turn to behavioral narcotics, which function as pain killers. These pain killers come in the form of chemical substances such as drugs or alcohol, but many people find their relief in “patterns and habits of behavior, relating, or coping.”

The most common non-chemical narcotics that Gary Moon has found among people are:

• Habits of workaholism (busyness – filling the mind so full of thoughts, dreams and activities of success that there is little room left to feel pain caused by irrational, underlying feelings of inadequacy)
• Habits of control (striving to control)
• Habits of people pleasing (constant monitoring of what others expect from us so that we can avoid the pain of their rejection by minimizing its likelihood)
• Habits of dependency (surrendering our will to the will of another for reasons of fear and self-diagnosed inadequacy)
• Habits of perfectionism (wearing a mask of perfection and rightness to cover inner turmoil and ambiguity)
• Habits of escape (taking emotional vacations from pain through the use of alcohol, drugs, or self-destructive patterns of pain-delaying behavior)

The third theme is the conflict between the two selves. The false self and the true self fight for the person’s heart throne. The false self wants to maintain control with its message of running to behavioral narcotics for peace; but the true self wants more than this. The true self wants restoration of the rightful order in which the peace and love of God reign in the person’s life.

This chapter focuses on the second of these three themes: behavioral narcotics.

“So many in America today have fallen into such compulsive, unmanageable patterns that addiction has become one of our most pressing and pervasive social problems…does the cross have a message for those struggling with addictions?”

The author tells of a pastor who served his congregation for 20 years before they found out about his sexual addiction. In his own words, he expressed what the typical experience of many is: “As I looked back over the years, I began to realize that I was overtaken in childhood. It was then that seeds of addiction were planted…My childhood as characterized by a lack of emotional openness and human closeness. I was taught…that men don’t hug, men don’t cry, and men don’t show their feelings.” He told of how as a child during a thunderstorm one night, in his fright he crawled into this parents’ bed for protection. His father woke up and pushed him onto the floor; when he cried in response to the rejection, his father told him that big boys don’t cry. He was also molested as a young boy by farm workers.

Most addicts have experienced significant compassion deficits; out of the addictive root, an addictive mindset emerges which has 3 core beliefs:

• I am fundamentally bad, a worthless person and undeserving of love.
• No one would love me if they really knew me.
• If I don’t meet my needs, they’ll never get met.

(All of these beliefs contradict what the Scriptures reveal to us about God’s estimation of us.)

Besides an addictive mindset, compassion deficits fuel anger. “…addicts are very angry people. Their anger feeds on itself as they reflect endlessly on how they have been hurt and what the world owes them. They cannot relate to others intimately, because their anger blocks their giving of self.”

When does something that only functioned as a “behavioral narcotic” (or a coping mechanism) become an addiction? The author quotes Gerald May who gives five characteristics of all addictions: 1) tolerance – needing more to get the same relief as before; 2) withdrawal symptoms; 3) self-deception; 4) loss of willpower – divided will; 5) distortion of attention – unable to fix attention on anything but the object of their addiction.

The word that sums up the condition of an addict is powerless.

The All-powerful One becomes Powerless
“In contrast to the addict who grasps for power through some behavioral narcotic, during his final hours Christ the all-powerful One chose to become powerless.” (John 10:17,18)

At every turn in the story of His suffering, Jesus was the One in charge. He handed Himself over to the authorities; He presented Himself as the One being looked for in the garden; even His words, “I am” caused them to fall to the ground, so powerful was the force of His words and presence.

Jesus’ relinquishing of freedom and power intensified all the way to the cross. Seamands quotes Klaas Schilder who shows this descent into powerlessness by Jesus in three ways:
1) When he was arrested and bound, He was robbed of His power to act freely.
2) When sentenced to death in His trial, He was robbed of His power to speak freely.
3) On the cross in the mocking and taunting, His power to think freely abandoned Him.

Colossians 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.” (NIV) We saw how through crucifixion, the political and religious leaders intended to make a public spectacle of Jesus but instead, by enduring that shame, he actually made them a public spectacle, shaming them by exposing their true colors. They were not God’s allies as they claimed…

Col. 2:15 speaks of the cross itself as a victory. Jesus tells why this is when He says in John 14:30,31 “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me.” So not even in death could Satan gain power over Jesus, and as a result of His voluntarily yielding to His Father’s will, Jesus exposed the devil’s ultimate weapon, which is the “power of illusion.” Through this power, the evil forces convince us that they are equal to God and thereby seduce us into bowing in worship to them.

Jesus refused to be seduced into bowing to Satan and demonstrated this by voluntarily laying down His life in obedience to God, the only Creator and One worthy of worship. All the way to the cross Jesus kept making known to the authorities that they had no power over Him and that He was going this way by choice. Each step of the way was exposing the powerlessness of the devil and his forces.

“He overcame not by launching an all-out frontal attack on his adversaries or by beating them at their own game but through the power of suffering love. He chose the way of forgiveness, not retaliation; meekness, not self-assertion (I Peter 2:23)…He took everything the powers of evil could throw at him yet remained free, uncontaminated, uncompromised…Christ’s resurrection from the dead and his exaltation to God’s right hand confirmed and proclaimed the victory he won on the cross…Now the tables have been turned. Death is under his feet (Eph. 4:8)”

What Does the Cross say to Those in Addictions?
First, we must admit we are powerless over our addictions. Our willpower is no match for the power of our addictions. The only power we have is the power to admit we are powerless…We cannot deny nor despair over it but must rather embrace it.

Second, in our powerlessness we must cry out to Jesus for his strength is made perfect in our weakness…The Lord can break the chains of our addictions. So we must call on him to deliver us and give him permission to do anything necessary to set us free.

Third, in our powerlessness we must reach out to others for help…achieving freedom from addiction will involve a long, difficult process…not only is there an addictive behavior cycle to break but there is an addictive mindset (lies we’ve believed) and addictive root (wounds/compassion deficits) that must be changed…The goal isn’t just to get the noose off the soul, but to become someone who is experiencing all that God has for him.

Because Jesus willingly became a slave in obedience to His Father, He made captive that which captures us in whatever form of bondage we may be in. May His grace rest heavily on us to believe what He has done, whether for our own addictions or those of the dear ones He has placed us with.

There is an amazing story at the end of this chapter about a man taken captive by the Nazis and chained to a bed in prison. In his despair he sensed that he needed to kiss the chains that bound him and when he did, he experienced inner freedom - read the entire story, if you can!

The questions at the end of this chapter are especially helpful, so I encourage you to go through those, if this has resonated in a particular way for you. The Lord bless you and keep you and may His countenance shine on you this week!

Next week we will go through chapter six: Deliverance for Those Who are Bound.