Daily Lesson for February 3, 2014

Today's Lesson from Genesis 19 verse 26:

26 But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Yesterday the world lost a great actor in Philip Seymour Hoffman. More than that, those close to him lost a beloved family member and friend. Our hearts are all heavy.

Apparently, Hoffman died of a drug overdose. Reports say he had a history with drugs but was clean for 20+ years before relapsing last year. It is disturbing to think that someone could be clean that long and then turn back.

I didn't know Hoffman so can't speak to his circumstance, which is obviously tragic.  I dare not add to that tragedy with presumptuous talk.

But I do think I can say something more general about relapse.  In the Big Book of AA the reasons given for relapse are always deep, spiritual reasons. They involve the inability to hope, the psychological weight of guilt and shame, the absence of inner-transforming practices like prayer and meditation, and a failure to reach out to others and share the journey of recovery.

These deep, spiritual maladies are not true for alcoholics only. These are the reasons any one of us could relapse back into our own places of spiritual darkness - whatever those places may be. The journey from the darkness of self destruction toward the light of eternal life is a life-long journey, made step by step, day after day. 

Today's Scripture tells of Lot's wife who while fleeing the city of Sodom stopped and looked back. I don't know why she looked back - perhaps in grief over what was lost behind her or perhaps in fear of what lay ahead of her. Regardless, the message is she stopped moving forward and became a pillar of salt.

Whatever our griefs or fears, we can't stop. We have to keep moving away from the city of destruction and toward freedom. As one friend - still clean after 20+ years - told me last week, "We either grow or we go."

One final thought. It appears that Philip Seymour Hoffman died like so many others who OD - alone. Physically alone and spiritually alone as well. Self-isolation is always the last stage before the beginning of the death spiral. If you in or near self-isolation reach out. Call AA, or NA or call me. It is the trick of evil to cut you off from others so completely that you think you're all alone and there is no way out. Trust me when I say there is and that there are people who know the way.