Choosing a Better Option

It’s a condition I have had for many years.

I get infections in my colon. They can be extremely painful and put me in the hospital. I have learned to recognize the feeling when it’s beginning and usually have to fight a sense of panic at the first twinge. My initial impulse has been to scramble for antibiotics. I send a frantic call to my doctor begging for a quick prescription. In recent years, however, those pills promising healing relief have made me feel almost as bad as the sickness.

What to do?

The condition is called diverticulosis. When an infection develops, it’s known as diverticulitis. I finally came to the conclusion that through increased fiber intake with water, probiotics, and a lot of prayer, I could avoid the antibiotics. It has worked for the past few years!

So, what’s the point of detailing my journey toward intestinal health?

When I’m in pain, I look for relief — usually whatever I believe will provide it the quickest. Sometimes what I imagine to be a cure ends up being as bad, if not worse, than the disease from which I am seeking freedom. I don’t think I’m alone in this.

Emotional Pain?

Discomfort of the soul stirs similar desires for relief. I don’t like feeling bad, whether it be sadness, guilt, inadequacy, helplessness, or boredom. However, I typically do not seek to understand where these feelings of uneasiness come from. I just want relief. So, I reach for the nearest remedy that will dull or cover the distress. The self-medication I apply to my soul or psyche rarely, if ever, solves anything. It either merely prolongs the uncomfortable feelings, once the quick fix wears off, or it leaves me feeling worse with increased sadness, intensified guilt, or far-reaching confusion.

Like physical pain, emotional discomfort, or sickness of the heart, is rooted in something deeper than surface symptoms indicate. And like a good doctor seeking to diagnose a physical malady, we need to identify the core problem if we want to experience true healing. But for some reason many of us don’t pursue internal wholeness. We just want to stop hurting. “Make me feel better now!” It is this short-term mindset with our souls that leads into all kinds of self-medicating and addictive habits that at best don’t really help. At worst, they enslave us.

It Can Be Almost Anything

Porn is the growing drug of choice for many these days. What used to be overwhelmingly a male issue is now shared with females as they seek to dull some internal ache, confusion, or fear. With its easy online access, its diminishing negative social stigma, and its intensely addictive nature, it is no wonder that internet porn is one of the primary soul desensitizers used today.

Of course, there are many others that we turn to. Along with the chemical ones — assorted drugs, pills, alcohol, and the different forms of cannabis — there is shopping, gaming, romance, food, exercise, and sports bingeing. For the spiritually inclined there are those intense religious experiences to dull the misery. Today, almost any activity or substance can be used as a reality-numbing narcotic.

A Better Way?

The Apostle Paul told followers of Jesus in the Greek city of Corinth the following:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NIV).

God promises to be our Comforter. But too often we don’t dare to take Him up on it. Or we demand that He comfort us according to how we dictate and then are disillusioned when the pain isn’t taken away. Many times, there’s stuff in the way, like sin we’re holding onto, unforgiveness, the demand to be in control, or just plain unbelief in His goodness to provide for a deeper need. Rather than looking honestly at the roots of our hurts and confusion, we go to the cupboard of self-reliance and select the elixir of choice to medicate the symptoms.

But on our own that’s all we do . . . temporarily numb a symptom.

Just as I have found other ways than antibiotics to address my intestinal woes, God has His way of soothing the afflictions of our souls. We just have to let Him show us what the real problem is so that we can invite Him to be the source of our comfort. And the promise is that we too will then be able to pass this comfort along to others in need.

There can be REAL comfort in the midst of suffering, confusion, and pain, not just a cover up.

No more of the fake stuff. There is a better option!

I want something that touches where it REALLY hurts. And only HE can give that.

Response:

• What are the core infirmities of my heart that push me to numb or escape reality?
• What is my “drug” of choice? How well does it address the aches and stresses of my soul?
• What keeps me from turning to God first for comfort?
• Jesus, give me your comfort for my stress, fear, loneliness, and anxiety.

(Edited and reposted from March 6, 2023, Choosing a Different Kind of Medication)