Pathways of Addiction ~ Your Words Betray You

“And David sent and enquired after the woman.”          (2 Samuel 11:3)

If the first two steps on the path involve thoughts – acquiring and pondering – then the next step involves words.  What started out as questioning has become attitude. What was known only to us and to God is now known to anyone around us who is observant enough to notice.  Our attitudes literally shout to others – what we choose to wear, how we choose to decorate our homes, what we allow to enter into our conversations.  What do you tweet?  What is on your Facebook page?  What do you Google?  Thoughts are no longer exclusive to the venues of our private minds, but are open to all.  Jeffrey Dale Hobbs, Associate Professor of Communication from the University of Texas at Tyler, wrote “Your words betray and portray you.”  He is right and on a lot of levels he probably never considered.

What is the next step on the path after words and attitude?  Action.  I’m sure most of you are familiar with this Alexander Pope quote: “Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace.” If you talk about doing a thing often enough, the next step is that you will do it.  After David saw Bathsheba and thought about her and asked about her, he sent for her. (2 Samuel 11: 4)  That single act led to adultery and, eventually, to murder. 

THOUGHT, WORD, and DEED.  The story of David is one of the greatest tragedies in all of scripture – tragic, because David had choices all along the way.  He could have refrained from continuing to look.  He could have chosen to put her out of his mind and focus on the family he already had.  He could have chosen not to ask others about her.  He could have chosen not to send for her.  He could have chosen not to lay with her.  Even then, he could have chosen to repent of his sin rather than to attempt to cover it up and murder her husband to have her.

 

I saw this picture on Facebook and I love the message it portrays.  A single act of sin is not addiction.  Every step of the way, David could have turned back from the path.  That turning around – a common Old Testament concept – is what we call repentance.  It seems that when it comes to repentance we human beings have it backwards: we avoid repenting because we are ashamed of what we have done.  But the shame is in the sin, and not in the repentance.   As we learn more about the paths of addiction, we will see why it is important to turn back – and away from sin – while we still can.