As surprising as it may seem, sexual addiction—like all addictions—represents a deep hunger for God. In their book, The Sacred Romance, Brent Curtis and John Eldredge point out that humans are designed for intimacy with God. Sometimes we allow the world, however, to drown out God’s voice. But our need for communion with Him never goes away. Instead of seeking fulfillment in Christ, the addict tries to fill the emptiness with other things: pornography, an affair, or a fantasy life.
As the authors put it, “We put our hope in . . . some form of immediate gratification, some taste of transcendence that will place a drop of water on our parched tongue.” And they add that “this taste of transcendence, coming as it does from an obsession with . . . pornography . . . has the same effect on our souls as crack cocaine.” The addiction “attaches itself to our desire [for God] with chains that render us captive.”
That’s why addiction expert Gerald May calls addiction “the most powerful psychic enemy of humanity’s desire for God.” And nothing can free the captives of addiction except God.
If you or someone you know is struggling with porn, a website called PureIntimacy.org, run by Focus on the Family, may help. And if you go to the BreakPoint website, you will find ways to participate in the White Ribbon against Pornography campaign this week—ways you can help shut down illegal, hard-core porn in your own town. Get your church involved, as well.
Those white ribbons we wear this week are a public witness that we refuse to accept the crack cocaine of porn in our society—porn that destroys the lives of all it touches.
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