‘The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.” (Ecclesiastes 7:4)
I happened to have lunch a couple of weeks ago with a good friend of mine. He used to be addicted to share trading where almost every day he would nibble in the market. It later developed into a ‘hobby’, filling up his boredom. This addiction resulted him incurring substantial financial losses, affected his work and family life.
Addiction is defined as being enslaved to a habit or practice. It occurs when we repeated that behaviour often enough that it becomes etched into our brain. There is a legend relays a conversation between a wise old man and his grandson. The old man, explained to the boy, “Inside of me, and inside of every person, a terrible fight is going on between two dogs. One is evil; the other is good. They fight all the time. “The grandson asked, “Which one wins?” His grandfather smiled and replied, “The one I feed.”
In order to win over this ‘monster dog’ in our inner self, we need to break the bad habit and at the same time, to replace it with a good one. Then, one must vow never to feed the mean dog again, and to keep feeding the good one. So when we indulge even a little in our addiction, we are feeding the wrong dog. When we refuse to feed him, he loses his strength.
Below is an excerpt from my student who recently shared his struggle with his drug addiction:
“.....When I fail and fall onto the wrong track, it is my foolishness, it is my sinful nature at work. I’ve been short-sighted and indulge in temporary, meaningless pleasure.....God has warned me but I failed God....Our Heavenly father, please rescue me from my drug addiction, with my own effort I’ve failed so many times. Without your support, I’m weak in front of my foe. Let me hold on to your mighty hand. I will be strong to confront my enemy. Away from me, my deceitful friend. I have my Lord with me, never again will I need your company.”
We are visual, feeling creatures and can be addicted to anything under the sun except God because we can’t feel or see Him. What do we enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies our mind when we have nothing else to think about? Where and what are we spending our money on? It is very easy to be entangled with the affairs of this life because there are just too many attractive things in this world that can satisfy our senses, material or non-material things. They often start as “refuelling” activities but later took up so much of our time, thought, and energy that they become the centre of our life. Family and career were once ‘addictions’ or ‘idols’ in my life and I am grateful that my sickness caused me to learn to strike a balance in life.
I am glad to hear this friend of mine that now he has been able to walk away from his ‘addiction’ after staying away from the stock market for several months. Finally he feels ‘liberated’ from the bondage of that ‘monster’ in his life.
I happened to have lunch a couple of weeks ago with a good friend of mine. He used to be addicted to share trading where almost every day he would nibble in the market. It later developed into a ‘hobby’, filling up his boredom. This addiction resulted him incurring substantial financial losses, affected his work and family life.
Addiction is defined as being enslaved to a habit or practice. It occurs when we repeated that behaviour often enough that it becomes etched into our brain. There is a legend relays a conversation between a wise old man and his grandson. The old man, explained to the boy, “Inside of me, and inside of every person, a terrible fight is going on between two dogs. One is evil; the other is good. They fight all the time. “The grandson asked, “Which one wins?” His grandfather smiled and replied, “The one I feed.”
In order to win over this ‘monster dog’ in our inner self, we need to break the bad habit and at the same time, to replace it with a good one. Then, one must vow never to feed the mean dog again, and to keep feeding the good one. So when we indulge even a little in our addiction, we are feeding the wrong dog. When we refuse to feed him, he loses his strength.
Below is an excerpt from my student who recently shared his struggle with his drug addiction:
“.....When I fail and fall onto the wrong track, it is my foolishness, it is my sinful nature at work. I’ve been short-sighted and indulge in temporary, meaningless pleasure.....God has warned me but I failed God....Our Heavenly father, please rescue me from my drug addiction, with my own effort I’ve failed so many times. Without your support, I’m weak in front of my foe. Let me hold on to your mighty hand. I will be strong to confront my enemy. Away from me, my deceitful friend. I have my Lord with me, never again will I need your company.”
We are visual, feeling creatures and can be addicted to anything under the sun except God because we can’t feel or see Him. What do we enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies our mind when we have nothing else to think about? Where and what are we spending our money on? It is very easy to be entangled with the affairs of this life because there are just too many attractive things in this world that can satisfy our senses, material or non-material things. They often start as “refuelling” activities but later took up so much of our time, thought, and energy that they become the centre of our life. Family and career were once ‘addictions’ or ‘idols’ in my life and I am grateful that my sickness caused me to learn to strike a balance in life.
I am glad to hear this friend of mine that now he has been able to walk away from his ‘addiction’ after staying away from the stock market for several months. Finally he feels ‘liberated’ from the bondage of that ‘monster’ in his life.
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