Decrinimalization

“Then I will return to my lair
    until they have borne their guilt
    and seek my face—
in their misery
    they will earnestly seek me.”
Hosea 5:15 (NIV)

Wendy and I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal regarding the state of Oregon’s experiment with legalizing drugs. The idea was that making drugs legal would lead to fewer problems, but it has led to more problems with homelessness, vagrancy, and crime. Since drugs are legal, there’s little that can be done. There is a movement now within the state to re-criminalize drugs and it currently has the support of a majority of citizens.

It is well known in the Twelve Steps that one often has to hit rock bottom before the epiphany of the First Step becomes real: We realized that we were powerless over [insert your drug of choice here] – our lives had become unmanageable. It is also well known in the Twelve Steps that some individuals will never have the epiphany before it’s too late.

I thought about these things as I read Hosea’s prophetic proclamation to Israel and Judah this morning. God’s people were drunk on wealth, affluence, greed, corruption, and the lascivious worship of idols. They were addicts, relishing the fruits of their corruption and refusing to change their ways. God, through Hosea, proclaims that both of the stubborn nations will find themselves carried off into exile. It is only then, finding themselves captives in a foreign land, that they will have their rock bottom, First Step epiphany and be ready for Step Two and Step Three:

We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

In Hosea’s prophetic message, he calls out the national of Israel for paying tribute to the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians were an emerging empire and regional powerhouse. Israel’s tribute was meant to buy Assyria’s loyalty and protection. Thinking they were safe and secure under Assyria’s wing, it would be Assyria itself that would destroy Israel and take her people into captivity and exile.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, it struck me that drugs are not the only thing to which we are addicted. I’ve observed that people can get addicted to safety and security. We can get addicted to our affluence. We, like Israel, pay tribute for a sense of security. We pay tribute to a corporation to feel safe in our income and employment. We pay tribute to a government to feel the security of a social and economic safety nets. And yet, I have sat with grown men crying when, having been downsized, laid-off, or let go, they suddenly realized that the corporation didn’t really care about them, their career, or their security. I have listened to people stuck in the no-man’s land of a government bureaucracy that is deaf and uncaring to the suffering individual.

In the quiet this morning, my thoughts lead to my own life, my business, and my security. I’ve long believed that the only one I can really trust is God. I don’t trust human corporations, kingdoms, governments, or empires. When it comes right down to it, they care nothing about me or my needs. God has, however, proven Himself faithful time-and-time-again as I make a habit of placing my trust in Him. This has been true even when He has allowed me to make foolish choices and experience my own rock bottom moments in order to take my own personal First Step, then the second, and third, until I found myself at The Eleventh and Twelfth Steps:

We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

As I enter my day, I find myself whispering the Serenity Prayer of the the Twelve Steps:

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”