Why Do They Have to Suffer so Long?

This blog is part of a series in honor of Alcohol Awareness Month. Each Saturday in April, we will feature addiction awareness blogs written by clergy and lay people from throughout the Diocese of Washington.

Alcoholism is a primary, chronic, progressive disease. It affects at least 10 percent of the population and, in a hideous way, destroys both family and individual lives. No other fatal illness is marked by the sense of shame and embarrassment; no other incurable disease is so characterized by humiliation and silence as alcohol/drug addiction. If you have cancer or coronary heart disease, you get on the church’s prayer list. But if you’re an alcoholic, people talk in a voice tinged with disapproval and anger. 

For over 50 years, the American Medical Association has recognized alcoholism as a medical disease, not a social flaw or a personal failure. We Episcopalians are bright, intelligent people, but on this issue we haven’t made much progress in the last century. We still look upon the addicted person as a social pariah, morally flawed and a family embarrassment.

Finding Hope

This blog is part of a series in honor of Alcohol Awareness Month. Each Saturday in April, we will feature addiction awareness blogs written by clergy and lay people from throughout the Diocese of Washington.

Living with addiction can be hell. As I write this blog, the week after Easter Sunday, the week after celebrating the risen Christ and new life and resurrection, this hell can seem like a paradox to the season. But the truth is that addiction has plagued my family for over 20 years with no sign of stopping, despite the resurrection. Experience tells me that there is always hope, but all too often, addiction seems to loom right around the corner, ready to infiltrate joy and happiness at the drop of a hat.

A Lens of Grace

This blog is the first in a series in honor of Alcohol Awareness Month. Each Saturday in April, we will feature addiction awareness blogs written by clergy and lay people from throughout the Diocese of Washington.

“There is a life waiting for you, the likes of which you cannot imagine.” A simple testament, but powerful beyond measure and often what motivates an alcoholic or addict to accept help. 

In each of the hundreds of interventions I’ve facilitated, their friends and loved ones have given the testament above. Just as in each intervention, there has been a moment when I’ve been guided to ask, “Are you ready to have a different life?” Both the testaments and my question cause emotional warfare for the addicts, as if Jesus and the Devil were wrestling inside them. Their disease screams, “No one understands me, you people are over-reacting, I’m not that bad.” But their hearts, digesting loving concern and a possibility for redemption, whisper softly, “I don’t want to continue like this, I don’t know who I am, my life is a tomb.” When all goes well, the whisper wins.