What's Your Struggle?

No one ever said that living a life for Christ was going to be easy. Did they? As I am introduced to more people along my journey in life, it seems like I find more and more of us Christ Followers with very real struggles of our own. In all actuality, I think I've learned that just as many Christ Followers suffer from many of the things, those that have not yet chosen to follow Christ, also battle in their daily lives. The thing is, some are honest about it, yet so many more of us try to wear masks and pretend there are not things bothering us inside.

So, with the great prompting of a friend I highly value and respect, I've chosen to share my current battle with the world, in hopes that together the information I share with you, may indeed be a help to others. My battle began at the tender age of 10. Sure it began as an innocent effort to look cool around the older kids, to maybe even emulate my Father and other family members. Who knows why it really began, but what started as an innocent acting out, turned into a life long addiction to smoking cigarettes.

At first it would be only a few a week, then I learned the patterns of many others and found that many of them smoked to calm their nerves or de-stress from life's crazy turmoil. So, in no time at all my casual few smokes a week became a few smokes a day, then at one point of life, turned into 2 packs a day. Funny thing about addictions is that no one really considers themselves addicted to anything; that is, until they make that attempt to quit whatever it is they're "not" addicted to.

As of this writing, cigarettes have been a constant companion of mine for 33 years now. That's very frightening, when  you factor in that I'll only be 43 years old this September. So for more than two-thirds of my life, I have been inhaling all the toxins and tar that are going to ultimately kill me, if I don't completely turn them over to God to take away from me. That's a harsh but true reality! Don't take my word for it though, go to any Cancer ward in a hospital near you and see it for yourself. What's even more frightening to me personally, is that I lost my mother, older brother, aunt and uncle, ALL to Cancer and yet I struggle to surrender my hold on them.

How do you finally give up an addiction that has held you enslaved for so long, willingly? You begin to ask yourself questions like: Do I want my daughter to have to watch her Daddy die one day because of an unwillingness to give up a stupid cigarette? If I want to see my daughter one day become a woman and marry and start a family of her own, what am I going to do to make sure I quit? Do I want my future grandchildren robbed of the joy of knowing their grandparents, as was the case for my daughter? And those are just a random sampling of the things that goes through the mind of a man wanting to truly LIVE again and enjoy every day of his life, honoring God and ensuring he'll be around as long as possible for the one thing on this earth that means everything to Him: My Daughter!

The journey of life so far, has not been a pleasant one for the most part - there have been more downs than ups; more loss than gain, more pain than joy; but I've found that we can use anything in our life to continue enabling ourselves into believing why we should keep doing things as normal...my goal going forward today is to be smoke free first for God (my body is HIS temple after all), second my daughter (so that she can have as many good years with me as possible) and lastly myself (to finally go an entire day not dependent on the nicotine, but rather being FULLY dependent on God Alone).

So, what's your struggle? Will you be honest about it? Will you also consider joining me in this journey to recovery? Let me hear what your battle is and who knows; maybe just maybe, God will allow us to be the mutual encouragers and supporters of one another to cross that finish line once and for all, completely FREE!