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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 1218 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Addictions Destroy Lives - Ask Gramps


Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge.  Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy.  Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1218 of our Trek and time for our Philosophy Friday series.  Each Friday, we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.  As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’   Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible.  No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.

We may mix it up a bit on our Friday episodes, but will strive to keep them down to earth and enjoyable.   If you have any questions that you would like to ask Gramps, please email them to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com

So the question for this week is:

“Hey Gramps,  I am struggling with drinking too much.  I can usually control myself when life is running smoothly, but with the pressure of finances, working, raising the kids, and being good husband, I lapse back into drinking too much which I know is not what God desires. I fear that I am becoming addicted to drink.  Do you have some wisdom tips you can share that would help me avoid drinking when I am under stress?
 Addictions Destroy Lives
Let me start with a story about someone who ended up paying the ultimate price because he did not overcome his addiction.  Jeffrey Motts was executed by lethal injection for the 2005 murder of a fellow inmate at the Perry Correctional Institute in South Carolina.  He was originally jailed for murdering two elderly people in 1995.  What was particularly revealing was a comment he made in his final statement, which was read by his attorney.  “I was the child everyone wanted their children around, that is, until I got addicted to drugs.  Drugs have destroyed my life.”

The sad thing is, Jeffrey Motts was a good kid, as most kids start out in life.  Unfortunately, he became addicted to drugs through initially casual use, until it controlled his entire life.   He is not alone, and as the question which was asked today, it is so easy to slip from a functioning addiction, to one that completely consumes you. Many people today struggle with addictions, if not drugs or alcohol, it may be gambling, sex, pornography, food, shopping, or the more socially acceptable addictions of exercise, work, and internet habits.  These were once considered compulsions or weaknesses, but anything that controls and consumes us is an addiction.

I know it is not a pleasant way to think of it, but addictions remind me of Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.  It is hard to accept, but addictions are foolishness, because we are relying on something other than God to help us deal with life.  We must be willing to clothe ourselves with a life that is pleasing to God.  Romans 13:13-14 tells us, Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy.  Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.