Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Photo from the garage today to get the fog a bit better. Not really “looking out my back window”, but hey – I make the rules for these posts, right? So, I’m just gonna go with it. We all have self-imposed rules for our lives. A biggie for me is that I don’t drink alcohol or use drugs at all. Alcohol and drugs were a big part of my life for many years, though. And now they aren’t. And haven’t been for going on 36 years now (my anniversary will be on November 1st). And, I have to say – for me, personally – by the grace of God I guess – I lost all my desire to ever use drugs and alcohol again very early in my treatment. I can be around people who are drinking and/or using and I basically never get the urge. I’m never tempted. Not by drugs and alcohol, anyway. But an obsessive/compulsive personality will persist even when you remove its main obsession. It will look for other things to become obsessed with. Work. Shopping. Food. Fitness. Gambling. Sex. We are constantly bombarded with temptations. Buy this, go here, eat this, check out this new product, on sale today, act now!… the Lord’s Prayer, often used in recovery meetings, states “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, as if all temptation is bad. I do believe, when used in that context, it specifically means the “bad” temptations. I have several of those. I love to shop, and I’m in a position these days where I can basically buy whatever I want whenever I want. Nice place to be, I guess – but… do I really need 35 bass guitars? I struggle with that. It’s a love/hate thing. Buying and selling gear keeps my YouTube page alive and growing anyway, but it’s a lot of time and effort. And certainly not a “money maker” at all, as many hobbies aren’t. And it also just adds to the clutter. We have so much going on here at all times, maybe Thoreau was right when he said “Simplify, simplify. Our life is frittered away by detail. I say, let our affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand”. Way back then, there were already people struggling with this versus what we have coming at us these days. There more things you have going on, the more stuff you own, the more stress and anxiety seem to creep in as well. Simplify. Less is more. Lead us not into temptation… with food, too. I struggle with food I know isn’t good for me, at times that I know aren’t good to eat it, too. Like late night. And I’ve been giving in way too often as well. Food is a funny thing, you know – most of us eat every day. Kind of have too, right? But, how much? What kind of food? An obsession here can really become a bad thing. I think we can also find “good” obsessions as well, such as fitness, journaling, reading… or working on our spirituality. Even these can be taken to extremes, though. Once our obsessions start sucking the fun out of life rather than adding to its enjoyment, it’s time to reevaluate them. When we’re being tempted to do things we know aren’t good for us, like buying something we can’t afford or eating the entire bag of Taco Doritos right before bed (who on earth would ever do that?)… we ask God to “deliver us from evil”. I’m constantly aware of my obsessions and temptations. And I usually use fitness as my positive alternative. I’ll get extremely focused and determined to start a new nutrition and fitness program, and for me – putting in the work there, and seeing the results, always helps. It helps me say no to bad temptations. Helps me realize I have more than enough already. Helps me think clearer. Certainly helps me feel better physically. Think about your life right now, are you obsessed with anything? Are you giving in to temptations you know are creating stress in your life?… We make our own rules. We can change them at any time. Your life from this point forward depends on where your focus is from this point forward…
