Addiction

When I was in college a new idea was coming to the world of games.  Multi-player games had existed for a while, but this was bringing not just three or four people into a game together.  This was bringing thousands of people into one game at one time to interact with both the game world and each other.  Everquest was the first one that I remember, but it was not until World of Warcraft came that my brother and I were captivated by the MMORPG craze.

Wyatt and I had already played and enjoyed the first three Warcraft games, but this was a chance to enter the world and become a part of the World of Warcraft.  As soon as the game came out, we had it.  We wasted no time in creating characters and jumping into hours of online action.  Over the next four years, we logged a considerable number of hours playing that game, but it got boring.  After playing for four years, there was not much left to do.  Both of us quit the game.

Years passed, and Wyatt took up the game again.  I had graduated and moved on from College Station, but I liked to come back for visits for time to time.  It was one of these visits that finally drew me back into the World of Warcraft.

The Frozen Throne expansion had come out a while back, and with it came a new class, the Death Knight.  Sounds cool, right?  I thought so.  I asked my brother if I could check it out.  I made a character on his account to see what this Death Knight was like.  I was hooked.  The game got its claws into me again.  By the end of the next day, Wyatt and I took a trip to Target, and I bought copies of WoW and the two expansions.  I created my own Death Knight and plunged into the online gaming world once again.

It was my competitive nature coupled with the addictive qualities of the game that kept me in my apartment and online.  I justified the game by saying I was reaching out and witnessing to those on the game, which I did...  to some degree.  I think God used me there, but I don't think it was what He really wanted of me.  I also said that I would never play the game when I had the opportunity to hang out with friends in the real world.  I kept to that with a couple lapses, but the truth was that I would not look to spend time with people outside the game all the time.  I played every day.  Sometime it was only an hour.  Sometimes it was all day with the exception of eating and working out.  I am glad I was at least able to tear myself away for a workout, though I remember rushing through a few of them to get back to the game.

My competitive nature moved me up through the ranks of server I played on.  I got to point where I was the thirteen highest ranked Death Knight on the server.  I had a couple other characters, too, that I played when my Death Knight got a little boring.  I was firmly and unquestionably addicted to World of Warcraft. 

I don't remember how I finally understood my addiction, but somehow God got through to me.  This was not something I could continue to do and really live out the calling He had on my life.  So, I quit.  When you quit something like that, you have to quit completely or it doesn't work.  I gave all my characters to my brother, and I was done.  I was out.  No more World of Warcraft for me again, ever.

Addiction can take many forms.  Drug and alcohol addiction are the ones we hear about most often, but addictions to video games, sex, food, another person, or anything else can be just as harmful.  My addiction kept me from fostering fellowship to the degree I should have been with my friends in seminary.  It kept me from being involved in doing other kinds of ministry that I should have while I was there.  I doubt many of them noticed because I was involved, but I could have been involved to a greater degree and reaped greater, eternal rewards.

God does not want us to be enthralled with anything in this world, "For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world" (1 John 2:16).

Remember that, "'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be enslaved by anything" (1 Corinthians 6:12).  Paul knows that we will be enslaved to either God or something else (see Slaves).  He refuses to be a slave to anyone or anything but God.  Everyone of us should do the same.  So, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7), and "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Romans 13:14).

Sexual immorality and addiction to pornography can be one of the most difficult addictions to break.  It tends to be thought of as a male problem, but it effects both genders.  Both men and women can get addicted to pornography just like both men and women can get addicted to romantic fantasies, which tends to be thought of as a female issue.  "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to mankind.  God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The key to all of this is to put God first.  "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  'You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth'" (Exodus 20:2-4).  When we let an addiction overtake us, we have set up an idol in our lives, and we are putting that thing before God.  There is only one God, and you have only one King.  Do not set up something else on His throne in your life.