There’s a part in the big book of alcoholics anonymous that reads…
“Remember that we deal with alcohol—cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now.”
A friend of mine shared something that has stayed with me: “The voice of addiction sounds a lot like your own.” Those words hit home in more ways than one.
The intrusive thoughts that whisper to us don’t sound like an enemy. They sound like us. They reason with us. They justify. They negotiate. They promise that this time will be different. That is why alcoholism and addiction are so cunning and so baffling.
I firmly believe alcoholism and addiction are diseases. Another friend once said, “When an alcoholic tells you they’re going to quit and change their life—for the millionth time—they’re not lying.” I believe that. In that moment, they truly mean it. The tragedy is not that they lack sincerity; it’s that they lack the power to overcome it by themselves. Their mind and self-will convince them they can, even while the disease quietly leads them back to the very thing that’s destroying them.
Yet hidden within this terrible disease is a beautiful truth: the way out requires something beyond ourselves. It requires surrender. It requires faith. It requires a Higher Power. For me, that Higher Power is God, revealed through Jesus Christ.
Something spiritual happens when broken people gather together in honesty. God works through ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. I’ve watched hardened men and women become gentle. I’ve seen bitterness replaced with compassion, selfishness transformed into service, and despair exchanged for hope. There is simply no other explanation for the metamorphosis I’ve witnessed except the miraculous power of God.
To the outside world, addiction often looks like weakness or poor choices. But those who have lived it know the battle is far deeper than that. It is a fight against a mind that cannot always be trusted—a mind that convinces you death is preferable to surrender.
Today, I thank God for my alcoholism. Not because the disease was good, but because it finally brought me to the end of myself. It forced me to surrender my will, discover God, and ultimately find my Savior, Jesus Christ.
So to this cunning, baffling, powerful disease, I say this:
“I know your voice. I know your lies. I know your tricks. But I no longer fight you alone. I belong to the One who created me. With God, your deception has no authority over my life. I have His strength, His love, His truth, and His Spirit. I will spend the rest of my days sharing that hope with anyone willing to listen.”
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
— 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
