Introduction
I was on a mission trip to Russia fifteen years after I gave
up drinking alcohol. I was there helping with a Leadership Training Institute
for Global Teen Challenge. The last day of school, we had a special communion
service. In Russia it is customary to use real wine, unlike in America, where
we often use grape juice. The communion cup came my way; I drank it and immediately
knew it was alcohol.
I felt the warm feeling in my chest, which I had once longed
for as an alcoholic. Because I was a guest, my hosts brought me the wine that remained
after everyone else was served. Not wanting to offend them, I drank it. The
warm feeling got even warmer.
There are many people who are classified alcoholics and live
their life sober, confessing that they will always be alcoholics. That trip to Russia
confirmed what I have believed for fifteen years: that I am no longer an
alcoholic. I am a new creation. There are many clinically diagnosed alcoholics whom
the communion in Russia would have sent back to drinking. Were I not a new
creation, I would have been in a bar in Moscow that night.
But that day in Russia, God showed me —as He has many times
before—that I am free.
re·ha·bil·i·tate
To restore formally to former capacity, standing, rank, rights, or privileges…
This is the definition of rehabilitation
(Dictionary.com). It means to restore someone to what they once were. For
anyone who is struggling with addiction, rehabilitation is the worst thing that
could happen. He or she does not need to go back to a former state, rank, or
privileges. A twenty-eight-year-old who needs help does not need to return to
age twelve just to make the same decisions again. Something new needs to happen.
That person needs to die and another one needs to take its place.
And I will
give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the
heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may
walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My
people, and I shall be their God. (Ezekiel
11:19–20)
Rehab is for someone
recovering from a stroke or knee injury, and trying to get his or her physical
body back to its former state. Addicts around the world need a spiritual heart
transplant. They need the heart that has been battered and made hard by the
world replaced with a new heart that is soft and teachable. They need a heart
that will follow after God.
