Do You Want to Be Healed?

A hard question faces every addict. The question seems simple, but it is really as challenging a question as an addict will ever face. And it is illustrated in the Gospel of John.

In the fifth chapter of John's gospel, Jesus comes to a pool which is said to have healing waters. The sick and the lame come from all around to be healed at this pool. When the waters of the pool are stirred, the first person to enter the waters becomes healed.

Jesus walks up to a lame man who has been sitting by this pool for many years and asks him a question. When you think about it, it is a very strange question. And yet it is the same question that every addict must answer if he is to walk the path of recovery.

Jesus asked the invalid, "Do you want to be healed?"



DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?

The addict has asked himself this question many times. Sure, on the surface, the answer seems obvious. But does the addict really want to be healed? If pressed for an honest answer, the addict would probably say, "I would like to be relieved of the harm my addiction causes and the unmanageability it brings into my life, but I don't want to give up [enter drug of choice here]."

By and large, addicts don't want to be healed. The road that led to addiction is usually paved with painful experiences. And in the beginning, the addictive drug or behavior was a way to soothe and alleviate pain. Only later did the addictive drug or behavior become a problem of its own.

To overcome addiction, the addict has to want to be healed. The addict has to want a life that confronts pain rather than avoiding it with addiction. This is not an easy thing to choose. Especially when the addict believes he is a bad and worthless person, that no one who knows the truth about him will love him, and that only his addiction can take care of his needs.

Today the addict is struggling again with this fundamental question. Time and again the addict has said, "Yes, I want to be healed." But time and again the addict has returned to his addiction when pain walked into the room.

The choice is yours, addict.

Do you want to be healed?