I've known about this addiction issue for quite some time, but this is the first time that I've been comfortable enough to admit my addiction. After all, the truth sets you free, right?
Interestingly, my addiction began as repulsion. You see, I was addicted to Coca Cola Classic before I made the switch to Diet Coke. That addiction was much the same. Loved it over every other drink option and drank it readily and often. Shortly after Jeffrey and I got married, our shared love of Coke resulted in our shared newlywed weight gain. Add the birth of Maggie and preceding pregnancy and sympathy pounds to our mix, and we were two plump, carbonated parents! We decided that something had to change. Mind you, we were not prepared to address our love of carbs of all shapes and sizes, nor our propensity for fast food due to our hectic travel-heavy lifestyles, but we zeroed in on the one thing we thought we could do. Switch from Coke to Diet Coke. You see, one 12 ounce can of Coca Cola Classic has 39 grams of sugar and 140 calories!! Multiply that times the several we drank each day, not to mention the larger quantities that come as a result of the drive-thru window and their drink sizing.......and we were probably consuming in Coca Cola what should have been our entire caloric intake for the day! So.......we decided to make the switch. After all, the nutrition facts on the back of the Diet Coke can reveal a long line of (0). No fat, no carbs, no protein and best of all......NO CALORIES! So, our choice was made. The first taste of Diet Coke was nothing short of revolting to us. Where oh where was the sweet, syrupy goodness we'd grown up loving? This was a fraud! A sham! A shameful copycat of a finer soda beverage. Jeffrey was done. He'd had enough. If he couldn't drink Coke, he'd just switch to water. He wasn't putting that Diet Coke filth in his mouth again.....and he hasn't since. I made the switch though. It was a gross, saliva-repulsing process, but I finally hooked myself on the substitute. Oh, and we lost over 25 pounds collectively by changing nothing else but our choice of soda.
Fast-forward 9 years. Now, the taste of Coca Cola is repulsive to me. It tastes like drinking maple syrup. Jeffrey still doesn't consume soda and I'm still hooked to Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. I mean, it's true what they say......"Diet Dr. Pepper really does taste more like regular Dr. Pepper." This addiction hasn't come without a reprieve here and there though. A couple of years ago, I got on a SUPER healthy kick, switched our family to organic foods, cut out carbonated beverages......PERIOD, began exercising P-90X style, lost 30 pounds, easily wore those designer jeans mentioned in the previous post and was militant about foods, cosmetics, calorie contents, empty calories, whole foods, green living, natural instead of processed and all that goes with it. I loved it! I was healthy, my family was healthy, we felt good and life was good. Then, along with job changes and life changes, our income didn't support the expense that comes along with that lifestyle and my emotions didn't support the expense that comes with enduring some massive hurt at the hands of people and circumstances. Before long, I justified treating myself with Diet Coke (because after all, I deserved it after all I'd been through) and before I knew it, my treat was an addiction.
Along with the return of my addiction, I began to notice some other interesting changes. You see, when I was consuming primarily water or juice beverages, my skin was clear, my stomach was flat, my migraines were significantly lessened and my aching joints and muscles weren't nearly as noticeable. My hair was healthier, I generally smelled better as a person (weird, I know) and my teeth were whiter. As I began to introduce Diet Coke back into the mix, the water and all other beverages phased out. It just didn't taste as good to me! Along with the water, all of the benefits of the water left as well. For me, the spiritual application has become painfully clear over the last few years. Yes, often times it takes years of being beat over the head before I embrace something. I may be a bit stubborn (sarcasm intended).
I drank Diet Coke because I liked it and I was thirsty. I also actually thought it was quenching my thirst. And it did in the short term. But I was always thirsty again. I'd bought into the lie AND I had received no nutritional or lasting value from the Diet Coke. The side effects of Diet Coke aren't just in what I don't gain from it, but also in what I lose in my addiction to it. Any time I sin, I'm choosing to believe a lie instead of the truth. I choose to believe that it will make me happy, cause me to feel good, not really hurt me in the long run or that no one will ever know. I exchange truth for lies. In the same way, sin tricks us into thinking we're gaining something yet we're always losing, because sin always leads to death. Maybe not our physical death initially, but there is always death of something. Innocence, trust, purity, self-control, humility.......the list is endless and full of casualties as a result of sin. For the sake of this illustration, the water of my spiritual life is the Word of God. Spiritual nourishment, lasting joy, peace amidst the storms of this life and anything else beneficial are found there. Any attempts to nourish myself spiritually in place of the water of the Word of God are false, artificial and imitation substitutes for what my soul really needs. Spiritually, my Diet Cokes are the sins that I hold so dear, cling to and dress up like something other than sin, or explain and rationalize away. I have bought into the lie that I'm somehow more satisfied with them, otherwise I'd have dropped them long ago. I've exchanged the truth for a lie.
Interestingly, in recent years Diet Coke and other diet sodas have increasingly been linked to a variety of disorders and diseases mostly in connection with the artificial or substitute sweeteners that make it calorie-free. Has this caused me to pause and think about whether or not I should drink it? Of course! In the long run, has it really changed much for me, regardless of what I know? No. I suffer the effects as well. Headaches, fatigue, aches and pains, face breakouts, unhealthy hair, stomach issues and digestive issues among others. For some reason, I cannot seem to strike a healthy balance between my dance with Diet Coke and the water my body so desperately needs. The Diet Coke wins every time. I've noticed that with my sin too. Do I know the side effects of holding my "respectable sins" so dear? Of course! Does it change anything? Not really. I also can't strike a healthy balance between my sins and the Word of God. You see, the Word of God doesn't share. If I love one, I hate the other.
Even as this analogy has been chipping away at the walls of my soul for awhile, another layer was exposed about two weeks ago. As we were in a neurologist appointment discussing my Dad's Parkinson's Disease, the doctor made an amazing point. She said that in these hot spring and summer months, it's great to drink water and that it's ultimately the best for you, but unfortunately, the heat is so intense, that the effects of the water are sapped away far more quickly than usual. The benefits of the water are not decreased, but the ability of the body to exist on them as long is. She said that it's crucial to begin supplementing with electrolyte-enhanced water whenever possible. The electrolytes in the water bond to the red blood cells in the body keeping them hydrated longer. Electrolyte drinks carry fluids directly to the bloodstream. Blood volume is raised and fluids return to healthy levels. I was amazed. I realized that I don't even have Parkinson's and had been having some of those same symptoms. It didn't help that Diet Coke was also taking center stage as my beverage of choice.
The more I've pondered, the more the illustration has become clear. Spiritually speaking, the Word of God is fully sufficient, is living and active, and in it is everything we need for life and godliness. But, in this sin-filled, daily compromising, media saturated, godless world we live in, it is a necessity to supplement the Word of God with the spiritual electrolytes of accountability, prayer, worship...both privately and corporately, theologically sound teaching, missions, solitude and other spiritual disciplines. It's not enough to get out of bed, pour a cup of coffee and read the Bible before I enter my day and think that it and reading a few well-worded spiritual tweets will last me through all that will confront me in that day. I must nourish myself with the word AND the spiritual disciplines of life. I must be in community with other believers. I must be in relational accountability with like-minded, mature believers. Oh...I also have to put sin to death in my life. Unlike drinking an occasional Diet Coke, which isn't a sin, there can be no part of me that believes "well, that sin isn't so bad...and I'm not quite ready to be done with it yet." I have to mortify, or put to death, sin in my life. For the sake of our illustration....Diet Coke can't exist as a primary beverage in a healthy world. A physically healthy person must be nourished by water and electrolytes. They are the truth. Nourishment at the hands of Diet Coke is a lie.
Respectable sins (you know, the ones you're thinking of right now...) can't exist in a world where we're spiritually healthy. They have to be put to death intentionally and often. I must be nourishing myself with the Word of God and the spiritual practices that supplement my growth in Him so beautifully.
In case you're wondering......yes, I'm trying to quit Diet Coke. It truly is a refreshing, carbonated lie. Will I be perfect? Probably not. But, you'll see me carrying around my Camelbak full of water and my Vitamin Water Zero pretty religiously. They're the truth.
My goal is also to put sin to death in my life. Will I be perfect? No. Should I still strive to do so? Yes. My amazement at His sinless sacrifice on my sinful behalf should always result in my desire to do what pleases Him. I won't be perfect. But isn't that what's so amazing about the grace of God? Always.
peace.
