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Proverbs 23:19-21: Why do I turn to substances for help?

This is a question that I have actually heard quite a bit in my life. I was privileged to be invited to a birthday party at AA recently and at these celebrations one hears, among other things, the remarkable stories of success as the Lord delivers people from our addictions.

We have been blessed to serve the Lord, among other places, in Winnipeg’s North End, Stony Mountain Penitentiary, and Vancouver’s downtown eastside with The Salvation Army. There are many stories. Some are of wonderful successes as the Lord transforms lives and some are of daily struggles that continue for a lifetime.

I think of friends from our time on Vancouver Island. The day she and her husband accepted the Lord she stood up sober and never turned back. He has fought almost everyday to defend his sobriety: It is a struggle.

To some of us, substances possess a Siren-like song: this song has such a powerful draw. In Greek mythology, the Sirens are creatures with the head of a woman and the body of a bird. They live on islands and with their irresistible song lure mariners to their destruction as they crash on the rocks near their island.

We have seen people as young as elementary school age who have been tempted by this Siren song to a slow (or quick) slide into ‘skid row’ and many of my friends from prison wound up there, in part, because they succumbed to substance’s Siren song; for them the Siren’s song ended in the song of sirens coming to take them away.

Myself even, I confess, there are days when a part of me would really like the temporary release that substances seem to offer but, with the Lord’s help, I will continue to persevere and I will finish the race – clean.

I have a friend who continuously asks me if it ever gets easy; I have another friend who reminds me that it is just one day at a time. One thing that I have noticed about substances and other struggles in our lives is that the more we turn to the Lord, the easier it becomes to resist temptation and on the days when we lose the battle with temptation, it is very important that we don’t surrender the war. With the Lord, our walk truly is one day at a time.


Is there a time when you have fallen prey to the Siren call of something that has enslaved your mind or body? How has the Lord delivered you from addictions –alcohol, drugs (prescription or otherwise), video games, chocolate, overeating, sloth, etc.? And as our walk with the Lord is truly one day at a time, how will you draw on His support to be protected from temptation today?

Originally published December 2007 in the Nipawin Journal
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