Friday 26 November 2010

Addictions...

Caroline Moore is a final year student of Divinity at Aberdeen University. She has a great desire for serving God where-ever she can and has a passion for Bangladesh and it's people having worked there for a time.  She is also the author of today's post - enjoy! 

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I've been writing an essay on women and alcohol addictions recently and it's made me consider a few addictions in my own life...

-That morning cup of coffee, I can't, nay won't talk to anyone until the kettle clicks and the pouring into the cafetiere commences.

-Marks and Spencer's vanilla fudge... this addiction is definitely fuelled by my employees discount.

-TV shows, when I get hooked I can't just watch one episode, I hate the weekly intermission, I'd rather miss some weeks then indulge myself in several shows at once. 24 for example, Jack Bauer was never meant to be watched over the course of months, but in one endless marathon in the dark with friends and silence for the entirety of what is in fact only a day.

-Blogs. There are 4 blogs I regularly follow, and when I see that the blog author has delayed or failed in posting I then continue to twitch and refresh my page until I see a sparkling new post. Those four are, Phil's Deeper, Wider;
1000 Awesome Things- a countdown of 1000 awesome things (surprisingly enough), bringing a little bit of joy and relief into my day; Jon Acuff's Stuff Christians Like, this one I stumbled across in the midst of some procrastination, he sees everyday Christian situations and writes about them from a somewhat sarcastic comical stance and then there's Postsecret, a blog about secrets on the back of a postcard, so addictive I even went and bought the books.

But all these addictions are just passing phases; they will be there for a while then disappear and be replaced by newer ones. Recently I bought myself an ipod and downloaded The Bible app, and discovered that I could sign up to a bible reading plan, I chose the 90 day plan. The Bible in 90 days, a challenge it seems. Could I get addicted to the bible and read through it in 90 days?

No it turns out, I hold my hands up to failing, in terms of addictions maybe I'd be in rehab, but this is one addiction I don't want to get over, I want to be able to immerse myself in scripture and read it faithfully everyday. My other addictions creep in and whisper to me, "have you checked this blog yet, reading your bible can wait" or "you can't read your
bible until you've had coffee". Surely my addictions are harmless compared to others, they don't cause me pain or cost me friends or job or anything serious, but they are serious in that they stop me spending time with my Creator, reading His word and growing closer to him.

What 'addictions' stop you from reading the bible daily?

2 comments:

  1. This is so true. Why is it that somedays I'll do anything but the thing I want to do most? The things I could class as addictions are probably just convenient distractions.

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  2. I think we approach reading the Bible differently to other books. We focus on trying to learn and not reading story. Now don't get me wrong, there are times for deeper Biblical study, but there are also times we should read the Bible without trying to store up knowledge. Approach the book without thinking about retaining knowledge. We are allowed to be colanders to the Bible's water. When the water passes through, the colander retains nothing...but it becomes clean in the process.

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