No Matter What It Takes . . . Part 2

To all of you who came out to Another Level Sunday night at Oliver Twist, I say thank you. To those of you who couldn't make it, I say we missed you! We did indeed talk about the mistakes we make in life, and how they drive us apart. The night's conversation ranged from the not-very-personal celebrity-caliber mistakes (like those by the golfer who shares his name with a feline), to the slightly more personal mistakes made by companies and service providers and churches that annoy the ((&&*(^ out of you, to the oft-painful 'deal-breaker' mistakes. We talked about how sometimes those mistakes really change your life, and how sometimes you carry around their long-lasting-legacies as baggage and haunting thoughts.

I've met a lot of people who share with me a propensity for learning about life the hard way, often one mistake at a time. I've also met a lot of people who have an ability to move on. As a friend of mine named Kurt once said, "it's not whether you fall that matters in life, it's how well you bounce." I agree; but bouncing ain't easy, and in a very real sense, it can't ultimately be done alone. Often times, the more we try to bounce, the less we succeed.

Take the case of most anyone struggling with addiction. The addict consumes their drug (or porn or whatever) of choice. It gives a high or some other form of positive feedback. The high leaves. The rational thought appears, condemning the behavior and illiciting shame. The shame leads to a resolution: Never again. The resolution leads to an obsession on avoiding the 'drug'. The obsession with avoidance quickly allows the obsession with the drug to return. The vow of abstinence is sabatoged by the power of the thoughts and the drug itself, especially if there is a physiological addiction/withdrawl. So the addict consumes again. And again, and again.

The power of the mistake over life that must be broken, through humility, accountability, repentance, honesty, vulnerability. Ultimately, a price must be paid. The good news is that God has made a way out. There is a higher power. For the Christian, there is the forgiveness and justification that comes with a commitment to Christ and connection to a Christian community. For the agnostic or otherwise religious, there's at least a 12 step program.

Ultimately, we are freed from our obsessions, freed from the destructive power of our mistakes, by a redeeming God who pursues us, no matter what it takes, and a community that embraces us in love. But it's not easy. Nobody said life would be easy, but it's worth it, no matter what it takes.