Thoughts on a book I'm reading

Here's the first installment of my thoughts on the book Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave, by Edward Welch. This is going to be VERY informal, so please bear with me. I'm just going to jot down some notes on a chapter or two at a time.

Chapter 1 - Practical Theology
Welch writes, "Practical theology protects us from the deceptions in our hearts and the competing "isms' of the world. It sets the boundaries for our lives." Basically, he sets forth the premise that Scripture does set forth ready help for our addictions, even though it may not appear to do so. I could not agree more that Scripture contains much for the entrenched food addict, at any rate. Once you start to look for it, it's amazing how much the Bible has to say about food. Seems like perhaps some others have had this problem before.

One passage in this chapter that is especially poignant for me was in the section entitled "Describing Addictions". He explains, "Addicts feel as if they are trapped and out of control. They feel like abject worshippers, devoted to something that can be very dangerous...they feel they can't let go, clinging even when the addictive behavior yields very few pleasures and a great deal of pain...[they] feel out of control, enslaved, stuck, and without hope for freedom or escape." Wow. That is really how I felt much of the time for the past 7-8 years. I became truly miserable and felt so stuck. It was horrible. It's good for me to re-live this now, if only for a little while, so that I can keep in my mind how terrible it was to feel that way. It reminds me that I never, ever, ever want to go back to that again. I love food, and always will, but it is just not worth it. Welch explains why we keep going back to these things that enslave us, "What unites these and most other activities or substances described as addictions is that they deliver a bodily experience...[they] change our physical experience and they do it quickly, working within seconds or minutes rather than days or weeks." It is true, the temporary pleasure is hard to resist, but part of the resistance is remembering the long term pain that it causes.

That's most of what really particularly struck me about chapter 1. I'll try to write some on chapter 2 tomorrow. Or whenever. For now, I'm going to get my stuff ready for the morning and hit the sack.