Have you ever tried to help someone get on track and it turns into you doing all the work? Have you ever thought “If I can only get them to (make up your own personal goal and insert here), then they would surely want to continue to get life back on track!”
Perhaps you know a drunk? An addict? A worthless fella? A homeless mess?
Allow me to pause for a second, I just want to say: I am not trying to cause your blood pressure to skyrocket. I am not insulting you for trying. I am not even saying it’s “not worth trying” to help another human… or that this has even the slightest thing to do with your specific situation. So before your fuse pops. Before you flip your lid. Before you think I need to be canceled. Hear me out… I’m not saying this is a “one size fits all” I’m not even saying this fits any other situation, I’m just asking you to stop for a minute and ask “Does Charlie have any validity? Does Charlie have anything worth reading about? Does Charlie just speak out of ignorance? YOU DECIDE!!
Back to that person that has a messed up life: Is he the reason? Almost every time it’s because they have made bad choices… perhaps those bad choices are stimulated or “first cause” from situations that are not in their control? Perhaps a marriage failed due to infidelity? A parent died? A child was killed? Or life was too much?? I am not talking about excuses to make bad choices, I am however talking about what we do with bad situations.
The Choices We’ve Made. (Choose this day the god you shall serve)
But even so, they made a bad choice along the way… every death by overdose I have ever heard of started with a bad choice. Sure, we can find a situation that can be used to counter this… But the cold reality is this: I know a lot of addicts, drunks and folks that are dead because they made that choice to smoke weed, drink that drink and eventually, it got so bad that they died in a crash, overdosed, or used so long that their bodies couldn’t keep going.
Persistent mental illness, substance use disorder… These are the new PC terms. So many kids are dead, and would not be dead if they had never smoked that first joint… THERE…. I SAID IT. It started with weed.
I ruined years of my life with drinking and smoking and drugs… I could have retired multiple times by now if I had never gone to that one party in 6th grade… I would have been sober that day, I would not have crashed my bicycle into the back of that parked car, I would not have been flirting with that girl.
I have often thought about how my life would have been if the buddy I smoked my first joint with wasn’t dead in JR High, while he was stoned.
I wonder about the few people we had “honored” at my high school reunion.
Somedays I weep, because God preserved my life from the times I drove home and didn’t remember the trip… I remember crossing the river underneath camden bridge and the ice cracking, water coming up onto my shoes and somehow I survived.
Do you think of the brilliant minds that are now entombed in a world of delusion from drugs? I know so many guys that don’t have control in life because of “Persistent Mental Illness”, but the root cause is doing drugs… AKA “Substance Use Disorder”. Or perhaps you also have the profound memory of the funeral of your 18 year old niece? Do you think about this type of thing?
All because “The first time someone smoked the harmless devil’s lettuce, a simple joint, it’s legal so it’s not bad for you, weed” or maybe it was a wine cooler? A beer? I challenge you today to find one person who’s stuck in addiction, a drunk, a drugie or whatever term you prefer, just one, that doesn’t have a story that starts something like this : “I smoked weed/drank the first time ….”
Imagine a world where we could stop “the first time”… But humans are sick, it’s called sin, and everyone has this sickness… We already have the cure! Why not start healing before “SUD”.
Imagine a world where your son or daughter, friend or cousin, stranger or neighbor didn’t smoke that joint or have that drink. Where he didn’t talk to that man on the bus, where he was NOT given that foil pack to “try” later.
Imagine a world where anyone caught giving drugs to kids or vulnerable adults were actually arrested and charged! Imagine a world where political correctness didn’t rule the courts and feelings did not overwrite the laws on the books. Image a world that the deputy doesn’t say “We wont pursue criminal trespass because the county “prosecutor” won’t prosecute any trespass crimes”
Imagine a world that trusted God? God said “I created you”.
Yes, the world is sin filled, all have sinned, but that’s not the end of the book. The rest of it is simple, God already has a way for you and everyone to find freedom from addiction… YES, FREEDOM! You don’t need to be enslaved to addiction, there is freedom. Just ask, be sincere, ask God today to set you free from the sin that traps your heart.
You cant save that person in addiction, sometimes the best thing is to “not help”. Get out of the way and let God do his job. Enabling is actually the hardest form of addiction to “kick”. Enabling never saves, its always hurting the addict. Enabling is a form of addiction.
No prayer will save you, no mantra will save you, no doing good things will save you, in fact, the harder I have tried, the harder it gets… It’s called surrender, surrender to GOD. Only GOD can provide that freedom you need.
Thanks for reading my blog today, C.
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