This is such a large part of what I see as a therapist in a large, secular, and highly capitalistic society. I know that there are answers, but it is so very difficult to fill the void. Psychology seems to offer bandages, but does not get to the existential root. So much of what people say is a spiritual answer as in mindfulness and being present in the moment, does not fill the void of connection and a meaning that is beyond the self. ... not sufficiently in my opinion. So much of the church is ill and supports what is hurting us, the fundamentalists repressing authenticity and favoring males, and so many of us have broken families. Communities are difficult to create or find in large urban centers. Concern for others and empathy is dying in exchange for individualism and the desire for self-satisfaction. Most people don't have jobs that promote the common good and truly help others in ways that they experience. They know down deep they are a cog in a wheel of arbitrariness. So many are secular and are not open to faith. What is the answer? If we just say, believe in Jesus, it does not go anywhere.
Addiction & modernity make promises they can not keep & weren’t designed to keep. I reference them as being like Mylar balloons, shiny & big on the outside full of air on the inside. They bait us to outer edge of their extremes then we are shamed when we go too far because they have baked in progressive dissolution.
John Elderedge, Jordan Peterson & many other great thinkers have written & lectured on the power of purpose & upward-outward striving. As Elderedge has said, God has an adventurous heart & that heart He placed in us. We were made to be seekers. Addiction & modernity highlights this. All God rejecting modern people are still seeking something that’s greater than just themselves. What I think about a lot is ‘Why aren’t they seeking God?’ As He is the provider of what our hearts desire & were made for. I’ve concluded that “christians” (little “c” emphasized) have made it impossible to want to know Jesus & the Father. I’m not talking about the smoke, mirrors & light shows glamour of knowing Jesus, I’m talking about knowing all of Who & What He’s about. Far too many people know about Jesus yet do not know Him, meaning they don’t seek Him & trust Him. There’s no real emphasis on the fact that following Jesus makes our lives better & makes us better at life. The reality is that since most people are seeking something & since those somethings are fulfillment & purpose they are, in the final analysis, seeking Jesus we just look for Him in all the wrong places.
The Good News about seeking true purpose & fulfillment in modernity & addictions is that there is an expiration date & when we reach the end of ourselves Jesus is always there, He’s looking for us just like the prodigal son’s father was looking for him. Our commission is to be there with the Good News of Christ when the pieces do fall because they will & do.
Perhaps this is related to the idea of arbitrariness. In my own life, I struggled to make the transition to adulthood. With out a clear path forward, and without any confidence that I could find--or walk-- that path, I drank to excess. The world was too complex, and I needed guidance that was lacking from a culture that said, "you have to figure out who you are what you want to do with your life."
My drinking was not escapism in Tolkien's sense of the word. It was desertion of my post because I did not believe I had the mettle to face life's battle to become an adult. Anxiety and depression were worsened by the physical effects of drinking too much, and by the fact that I was piling up quite a disordered little mess of incomplete and abandoned tasks.
Something happened when I came to realize that Jesus was fully human and acutely felt the pain of the trial, betrayal, and crucifixion. That combined with the verse, "not only so but we also glory in our suffering," taught me to face my challenges head on.
I am still not a navy seal, or even very tough at all. But by God's grace, I have become, a reasonably responsible adult, who holds a job and serves faithfully as a father and husband.
I’ve seen exactly what this post is about both within myself as well as in a unique group of people I once closely identified with. It’s kinda embarrassing to explain but I will. My addiction was college football, University of Texas football in particular. How can that be an “addiction”? It fulfills so many of the desires that are explored in this post: purpose, adventure, a “battle to fight”, tribe, community, etc. It still draws me in. But there was a specific moment in time when I realized “This is not it”. You might think that moment was after a crushing defeat or failure of some kind, but it wasn’t. That “moment” was when I travelled to Pasadena, CA to watch Texas play USC in the National Championship in 2006. It was the “mountain top” for any college football fanatic. Texas won the game in dramatic fashion in what many still call the “best game ever”. After the game, as all the USC fans files out and all the Texas fans remained to soak in the moment, it was quite surreal. Grown men, in the stands, weeping with joy. But for me, after the initial illation, my thoughts were, “This is it?” Oh there was a certain satisfaction and I’ve always been proud to explain “I was there!”, but it was in that moment that I realized, all the effort, all the emotional capital, all the money (tickets were going for $1500 each for that Rose Bowl), and for what? For this?
I continued to have season tickets for a few years afterwards and I still watch every Saturday in the fall with friends and family, and it does sometimes pull me in, but I know it will never be the same because I know, that at the end of that rainbow, it’s just grown men weeping and your “team” is 0-0 again.
This makes me think of the extreme emotions around seeing people in concert... I love going to live music, but I definitely see parallels to worship services there. We ascribe meaning to the lyrics, find ourselves reflected in the singer, have deep, moving experiences, and somehow it feels more meaningful than "ordinary life". But we have not actually done anything ourselves, we've just attached our identity to whatever musician we are most attracted to.
This is such a large part of what I see as a therapist in a large, secular, and highly capitalistic society. I know that there are answers, but it is so very difficult to fill the void. Psychology seems to offer bandages, but does not get to the existential root. So much of what people say is a spiritual answer as in mindfulness and being present in the moment, does not fill the void of connection and a meaning that is beyond the self. ... not sufficiently in my opinion. So much of the church is ill and supports what is hurting us, the fundamentalists repressing authenticity and favoring males, and so many of us have broken families. Communities are difficult to create or find in large urban centers. Concern for others and empathy is dying in exchange for individualism and the desire for self-satisfaction. Most people don't have jobs that promote the common good and truly help others in ways that they experience. They know down deep they are a cog in a wheel of arbitrariness. So many are secular and are not open to faith. What is the answer? If we just say, believe in Jesus, it does not go anywhere.
Addiction & modernity make promises they can not keep & weren’t designed to keep. I reference them as being like Mylar balloons, shiny & big on the outside full of air on the inside. They bait us to outer edge of their extremes then we are shamed when we go too far because they have baked in progressive dissolution.
John Elderedge, Jordan Peterson & many other great thinkers have written & lectured on the power of purpose & upward-outward striving. As Elderedge has said, God has an adventurous heart & that heart He placed in us. We were made to be seekers. Addiction & modernity highlights this. All God rejecting modern people are still seeking something that’s greater than just themselves. What I think about a lot is ‘Why aren’t they seeking God?’ As He is the provider of what our hearts desire & were made for. I’ve concluded that “christians” (little “c” emphasized) have made it impossible to want to know Jesus & the Father. I’m not talking about the smoke, mirrors & light shows glamour of knowing Jesus, I’m talking about knowing all of Who & What He’s about. Far too many people know about Jesus yet do not know Him, meaning they don’t seek Him & trust Him. There’s no real emphasis on the fact that following Jesus makes our lives better & makes us better at life. The reality is that since most people are seeking something & since those somethings are fulfillment & purpose they are, in the final analysis, seeking Jesus we just look for Him in all the wrong places.
The Good News about seeking true purpose & fulfillment in modernity & addictions is that there is an expiration date & when we reach the end of ourselves Jesus is always there, He’s looking for us just like the prodigal son’s father was looking for him. Our commission is to be there with the Good News of Christ when the pieces do fall because they will & do.
Excellent. I read yesterday's post on today's video. This one's even better. Thanks for what you do.
Perhaps this is related to the idea of arbitrariness. In my own life, I struggled to make the transition to adulthood. With out a clear path forward, and without any confidence that I could find--or walk-- that path, I drank to excess. The world was too complex, and I needed guidance that was lacking from a culture that said, "you have to figure out who you are what you want to do with your life."
My drinking was not escapism in Tolkien's sense of the word. It was desertion of my post because I did not believe I had the mettle to face life's battle to become an adult. Anxiety and depression were worsened by the physical effects of drinking too much, and by the fact that I was piling up quite a disordered little mess of incomplete and abandoned tasks.
Something happened when I came to realize that Jesus was fully human and acutely felt the pain of the trial, betrayal, and crucifixion. That combined with the verse, "not only so but we also glory in our suffering," taught me to face my challenges head on.
I am still not a navy seal, or even very tough at all. But by God's grace, I have become, a reasonably responsible adult, who holds a job and serves faithfully as a father and husband.
Hello, my name is Dan, and I’m an addict. 😊
I’ve seen exactly what this post is about both within myself as well as in a unique group of people I once closely identified with. It’s kinda embarrassing to explain but I will. My addiction was college football, University of Texas football in particular. How can that be an “addiction”? It fulfills so many of the desires that are explored in this post: purpose, adventure, a “battle to fight”, tribe, community, etc. It still draws me in. But there was a specific moment in time when I realized “This is not it”. You might think that moment was after a crushing defeat or failure of some kind, but it wasn’t. That “moment” was when I travelled to Pasadena, CA to watch Texas play USC in the National Championship in 2006. It was the “mountain top” for any college football fanatic. Texas won the game in dramatic fashion in what many still call the “best game ever”. After the game, as all the USC fans files out and all the Texas fans remained to soak in the moment, it was quite surreal. Grown men, in the stands, weeping with joy. But for me, after the initial illation, my thoughts were, “This is it?” Oh there was a certain satisfaction and I’ve always been proud to explain “I was there!”, but it was in that moment that I realized, all the effort, all the emotional capital, all the money (tickets were going for $1500 each for that Rose Bowl), and for what? For this?
I continued to have season tickets for a few years afterwards and I still watch every Saturday in the fall with friends and family, and it does sometimes pull me in, but I know it will never be the same because I know, that at the end of that rainbow, it’s just grown men weeping and your “team” is 0-0 again.
This makes me think of the extreme emotions around seeing people in concert... I love going to live music, but I definitely see parallels to worship services there. We ascribe meaning to the lyrics, find ourselves reflected in the singer, have deep, moving experiences, and somehow it feels more meaningful than "ordinary life". But we have not actually done anything ourselves, we've just attached our identity to whatever musician we are most attracted to.