On heroin and reputation

Yes addiction is "glorified selfishness", and that is a heart disease which we all share and feed in many ways, some of which are more socially acceptable than others.
Show me one person, one, who doesn't always pursue what they believe will bring them the most happiness. Some wise person said that pleasure is what each of us seek, even the man who hangs himself. In this we can't control our choices: we always choose what promises to most fulfill. Our sickness, our disease, for all of us, is that we continue seeking where there is no satisfaction.

The one who seeks to rest satisfied by despising another's shameless pursuit of their fulfillment, is likely further from finding their own.

I'm saying addiction is a disease, and that maybe it's less of a disease than some have who settle for less gratifying social approval. In both cases what is needed is a cure, a superior pleasure to expel the inferior. The heroin addict and the one who seeks the praise of their peers each only do so because they know of no greater relief, or reprieve from their own emptiness. I'm talking this way from personal experience on both counts. They do each have a choice. One option is that they can harden and shrink their capacity for joy, that is they may give up on the possibility that there really is something good and right that will bring fulfillment, and glut themselves on poison that pleases them less and less as it kills them. Or they may choose to keep seeking, to believe that there really is something better, something altogether unlike the thief they've bedded down with for so many nights, that possibly there is somewhere waiting for them figuratively a pure faithful spouse beyond comparison to these dirty, spiteful mistresses.

He is there. Our disease is only that we can't appreciate how good he is. Come to me all you worn out and heavily burdened, I'll give you rest for your souls, he says. The fulfillment we're seeking because we're empty, is simply the knowledge that he is full, that God is good, and satisfied, happy, and fulfilled without any need of you to put down the crack pipe or impress your friends. This is what he says through Jesus. And through this word of Christ we can be reconciled to know him as he is and let that be our rest. Keep seeking, Keep knocking, Keep asking, and you'll be the one who gets him. Your responsibility is to cry out for the boldness to believe.

Special thanks to Erica! Also Chris and Michella. Be addicts y'all, just go for what really pleases.