oblivious

We were given free will so that we could choose without coercion or manipulation. It is our birthright to participate fully in a life of love and abundance, and freedom of will is essential for our participation.

Nevertheless, our freedom is not complete. Working against it is the powerful force of addiction. The most common and prevalent addiction is not substance addiction (alcohol, drugs, etc.), but process addictions (patterns of thinking and reacting). The primary addiction for all humans is the addiction to our own way of thinking.

Spiritually, addiction is a deep-seated form of idolatry. The objects of our addictions become our false gods. These are what we worship, what we attend to, and where we give our time and energy, instead of love. Addiction, then, displaces and supplants God’s love as the source and object of our deepest true desire.

Meditation and Contemplation teach us how to observe our thinking and its patterns. When we see how self-serving, petty, and how compulsive our thinking is, we realize that we are trapped and unfree - that we are “possessed.”

The only cure for possession is repossession – by Something Greater. Until we find our own ground and connection to God, we remain unsettled, anxious, guilty, and lost. Life, then, feels okay and even good and right and purposeful. This is what it feels like to be “saved.”

Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”