The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Conversation and stories about real athletes and the journey thru sport, faith and life.
Connecting athletes, sports families and the church. Build bridges and telling real stories to help repair, build and grow people.
Hosts Dan Dromarsky and Dave Dawson
The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Habits and Addiction Part 2 of 2
Join us as we see how choices feed into our desires for validation. We reflect on the motivations behind these actions and consider how personal habits influence our lives positively and negatively, with insights from 2 Timothy 2:22 guiding our conversation toward righteousness and peace.
In a world where technology promises fulfillment, why do so many still feel empty? Listen as we share the poignant story of a young man who learned invaluable lessons in humility after a humbling defeat. His journey prompts a deep dive into the societal trend of seeking external solutions to fill internal voids, a tendency that often leaves us unsatisfied. We also tackle the paradox of progress and happiness, questioning why, despite all advancements, many struggle with discontentment and mental health challenges. Through stories and observations, we unravel the intricate web of insecurity and societal pressures.
Our discussion takes a turn toward the struggles of addiction and the quest for true fulfillment, particularly among athletes. The conversation highlights how spiritual fulfillment can be a crucial factor in overcoming addiction, suggesting that a lack of spiritual connection might be a root cause. By examining the role of faith and unseen spiritual elements, we emphasize how they can reshape one's identity and provide the hope needed to overcome personal battles. Through testimonies and biblical insights, we aim to inspire a transformation from victimhood to victory, showcasing the profound impact faith can have in leading a more satisfying life.
have you ever gone somewhere and someone's worn a specific shirt, trying to get people to say something about it? Usually I think this way when someone wears a maple leafs jersey to like a game where edmonton and calgary are playing each other at a hockey game and someone's wearing a Maple Leafs jersey and you're like why are you wearing that?
Speaker 2:I think the better example is anywhere on the planet where you see a Saskatchewan Rough Riders Anything Hat t-shirt, that is the best example because those fans want the recognition everywhere. I'm going to wear my Riders jersey so someone can put me on camera.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're wearing a writer's jersey at a hockey game. Why are you doing that?
Speaker 2:Or we've seen it in soccer events, in European soccer NFL games. Hey, there's a writer's hat yeah yeah, it's the universal sign of please somebody, validate my existence.
Speaker 1:You know what Well said. The only other thing that I think can compare to that is like the greksky jersey. Are that greksky? He's a greksky wing, greksky however you want to say, dave, I heard he said grek w yeah, the 99. Someone wears the 99. But I guess nowadays it's the modern one is the McDavid.
Speaker 2:The guy wears the McDavid, I don't know we might be reaching there, okay, but I know what you mean. Like places you go, somebody's wearing a shirt because they just want you to notice. Yeah, or they're wearing, you know I.
Speaker 1:But what's the root of it? Why would they want, like, why would you do that? That's what I wonder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like there's um, where was I the other day that? Um, there was. It was in the summertime and there was this guy who had, like this, mascot head. He was riding a bike with a mascot head, or sometimes it's the old guy with the nice car. Right, it might be the old guy with the nice car, I don't know driving by through town talking around.
Speaker 2:He's like looking over at you just waiting for you and I'm not a car guy at all, I know you are so like that would always I I that I would make an absolutely like do all I can to not look at them, okay, cause I know they're just like hey man, nice, 57, chevy, I'm like no, I will. I will stare at a McDonald's garbage bag on the sidewalk instead and not look at the vehicle.
Speaker 1:See, the car guy is an interesting one because there's some guys it's legit Like that's a really nice car and I know you're out for aay drive and you're enjoying your car. I get that. That's an enjoyable thing. But the guy that it really bugged me when they used to come out with like the cheap version of the cool car. Right, it's like you can go like do you get the mustang shelby cobra that someone just spent like a hundred thousand dollars on, or did you just get the four-cylinder mustang with the single exhaust? But you can look at the bumper and there's two little humps for dual exhaust because they use the same bumper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's just one exhaust and, and you're doing that just say, oh, I have a mustang too sure yeah, no, I don't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the point the point being attention, like looking for attention, and why do people do that? Well, I think, as we talked about in episode one and you had shared a great story at the end about voids and the people, the things that we do to fill voids right, and what voids can lead to Habits and routine can lead to good things, but sometimes we do them to fill a void, wondering how that will give us fulfillment we want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and sometimes when all of a sudden, I guess you'd say, we discover that maybe that thing that we do didn't feel avoid. And I'll go back to the story that I had shared about the young man losing the arm wrestling match Before you do.
Speaker 2:Okay, We'll make them wait even longer. I'm Dave. You're Dan. Well done. This is Gospel in the Game. I'm looking at a sheet when I'm saying that. Episode number 16, part two Habits and Addiction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Thanks for listening. And last episode we concluded by mentioning our verse. This time, let's start off with it.
Speaker 2:I love it 2 Timothy 2, verse 22. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Speaker 1:Those are very good things to search after and to seek after Starting after your story which we have made them wait for.
Speaker 1:And now we will hear the rest of the story, humbling this young man beating him at his own game, but a different version of it, going out clucking like a chicken back to his cabin. If you don't know the story, please go back to the previous episode, listen to it, find the story and you'll hear the beginning of it. I get a message on social media from this young man months later, introduces himself I'm so-and-so from camp. You might remember I had to go back to my cabin clucking like a chicken. I just wanted to let you know, thank you, and I was just like what he said.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes I think I'm the biggest peacock, and that's exactly what it makes me is. I come across as cocky, and then I struggle, and I wonder why I have a difficult time making friends and having relationships. And not only was I appreciative of the fact that you humbled me, but the fact that afterwards you continued the discussion with me. We had a little bit of a chat afterwards, and because I talked with him too, I said you know, when I was your young age too, I was big and strong, right, and one of the things that I had to discover, too, was there was always someone bigger and stronger than I was. At the same time, I'm not called to be big and strong. It came easy, it was natural, don't have to work at it, sure. But at the same time it was more important for me to pursue things that were godly, that would help develop my character, because my character is going to outlive and out length my strength, so character will last way longer in my life.
Speaker 2:So it made me wonder sorry, were you done? Yeah, I'm done, okay. It made me wonder, based on I don't know what, might've seen the fulfillment he was getting by beating everybody, being the champ, being the big guy, the bully if you want to use that word, you can, I'll let you. It's your call, you can determine what you want from it. But I don't imagine this guy's life was full of fulfillment. Being the guy who's feared. It may have looked like that from the outside, but I would guess behind the scenes there was stuff going on, because he wouldn't have come to you and said, hey, thanks for that lesson if he was in a really good spot going. You know what I love beating everybody, but I mean, so you beat me. Whatever I get to cluck like a chicken, life is good yeah, what do you do?
Speaker 1:I'm gonna just come back and I'm gonna womp you next year. Do yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:To me if he was in a good spot in life, that would have been his response. Yeah, but based on the process he was going through, I'd imagine behind the scenes he was medicating for something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. No, there was a lot of going on in his life and we chatted a little, talked about some strategies on dealing with things, and I think it was important realizing that probably that was the root of was insecurity when it really came down to it.
Speaker 2:And I think that's something that a lot of people can struggle with in this world. There are a lot of us you know speaking for my own experience as well you know insecurity needs to, can, will be medicated if not dealt with completely right. In our society today, we medicate things. We do that very often.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we go after. I think you know what. I had a conversation with someone not too long ago talking about going to the doctor and finding a treatment and struggling with something, and all of a sudden they were frustrated with the fact that their doctor said hey, listen, this is to help you with what you're feeling, and really they wanted to know what the root of the problem was. So I'd rather treat the root of the problem that way. I'm not just constantly medicating, trying to deal with the outcome from what the real problem is, and I think that goes along with life. We do that constantly, don't we?
Speaker 2:Sure Well, in this current world. You know, if you've ever seen the video Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy. No, you definitely haven't. Look on your face.
Speaker 1:Is that the name of a movie?
Speaker 2:No, it's a YouTube video. So there's this video. He's actually a fairly crass stand-up comedian, so it's interesting that when you watch his video, you go to watch some of his stand-up. You're like, whoa, okay, not for the family, but the content of the video is tremendous. Everything is amazing and nobody is happy. So he talks about how, you know, in a moment of time we can find anybody on the planet, anywhere we want to go on the internet. We can connect with celebrities in a click right, just like that. I can message somebody, a Hollywood movie star, and they can choose to read it and reply back to me.
Speaker 1:Or the person that's working for them, handling their account, whatever yeah.
Speaker 2:We can fly from here to a different part in the world. We have motorized vehicles that can get us everywhere. We have technology motorized vehicles that can get us everywhere. We have technology. We can make money literally sitting in our basements on a computerized device where years and years ago, you had to leave your house, go to a job, sweat for 12 hours, come home. There's so many different ways our society has evolved. Yet Suicides are higher than they've ever been, depression is higher than it's ever been. Divorce rates are higher than it's ever been. Families are more broken, people are more lonely. We're more miserable, angry, proudful, confused, violent than we've ever been as a society. Everything is amazing, yet nobody is happy. Why? Because we're all looking for that one thing that will fill the void, but yet nothing is good enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nothing actually does.
Speaker 2:Nothing actually does.
Speaker 1:So we can automatically when you that was a great explanation, Good detail. When you think about things that people try to fill in with, with the void. Sometimes they fill it in with the dumbest of stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about insecurity right so people who are looking for attention.
Speaker 2:Right, you're wearing your shirt, you're looking for you know, I joked before the show, but hey, we don't everyone on a date with a girl where she just wants you to tell her she's pretty. And the show about hey, we don't ever been on a date with a girl where she just wants you to tell her she's pretty. And I was like that's not the exact concept, but there's so many little things we do as people to try and like, if it's insecurity is, is one thing.
Speaker 1:Well, and okay, I maybe you know, I know I'll stick with my thing saying dumbest of stuff. Not everything is dumb that people do. I'll give you an example of that. When I, when I was younger, I saw someone with like blue hair, like I'm talking blue, blue, blue blue hair, and I just went, whoa, like everything, Okay, like with a relationship between her and her family, and my aunt goes, oh, I just love it, she's so artistic. And I just said artistic.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I don't. I guess I wouldn't consider that art. And he said well, no, that's just how she's expressing herself. I said well, just thinking in my head, I would never express myself by dying my hair blue. That's like insecurity, trying to draw attention to me, and some people might see that as artistic and might see that as creative and other things, and I don't think I'm necessarily going that way with it, but I'm just saying people will do the wildest of things.
Speaker 2:Sure, well, I think you know. I like to think of it like this Generations ago, our grandparents, we were a different world, right, you grew up with, you know didn't have the technology you do now. We don't have the loneliness, right, there was. There wasn't as many options out there to find answers that now there's so much that's interfering. Now people are searching for their own truth, right, and there are so many truths out there which can lead us down paths for people to become.
Speaker 2:I really like to think that. You know, maybe we'll use blue hair as an example, because you talked about it. I think it's all. All of those things are connected and tied to one thing, but they're all just going this way and that way. Right, you know like, for example I'll bring this up there are people who street preach, right, and they preach hellfire and brimstone. You are going to hell if you don't do this to me, I, I. That screams insecurity to me. Somebody who would rather shame and scream and yell at people on the side of the street where it, you know it, it has its place but like you, don't know the people at the same time.
Speaker 1:I hear what you're saying because I've heard people say this exact same thing and express that. So you're not the only one that feels that way, heard people say this exact same thing and express that. So you're not the only one that feels that way. At the same time, I've heard people that have converted to faith because of that, and so I think part of some people don't want to change. No matter how you say it to them in any way, shape or fashion, they will find something wrong with what you're saying or doing, or will disagree with you, and they won't change from their ways. Sure, and so I think it's. You said something really good there, where everyone's trying to find their truth or make everything universal. It's the same thing, but it's a different expression of it. Well, it's not. It's either black thing, but it's a different expression of it. Well, it's not. It's either black or white, or same or different.
Speaker 1:There has to be some sort of compass with a measurement of truth In sport. Is it offside or not offside, because it's one or the other? Is it a goal or not a goal? Did it go through the uprights or did it not go through the uprights? Was it a home run or not a goal? There's no. Did it go through the uprights or did it not go through the uprights? Was it a home run or not a home run? All these different things. Was it a bullseye or not a bullseye? Like you can go on and on and on. There has to be absolutes.
Speaker 2:And I think to me the root comes through scripture in very, very early on in Genesis, where the enemy says did God really say that you should not eat from the apple? Yeah, right, putting doubt in there, right? So that's where it all starts, when I believe and I think addiction is, I think, misunderstood in society in a way that people for there's two different sides to this it's misunderstood in a way that people are looked at as weak that struggle with addiction oh, you're addicted, you're weak. Why can't you be strong enough to this? It's misunderstood in a way that people are looked at as weak that struggle with addiction oh, you're addicted, you're weak. Why can't you be strong enough to overcome it? The street preacher why can't you do this? You're going to hell, right where on the opposite side going okay, yeah, but you are weak. But did you know that you can overcome this?
Speaker 2:yeah have you taken the time to walk alongside somebody who you know maybe has struggled in this area and like, listen to them and said, oh, my dad was abusive. Therefore I do these things. My dad left me like that's, you know. That's why I think in society, again, we paint this bland, broad picture where we want to, this bland, broad picture where we want to. Um, I don't know if we we have a lack of compassion for people or we have too much compassion and we pass off right, as you talked about. It's black or white, it's sin or it's not. That's the way god looks at it. But god doesn't strike us down and say you're going, that's it, you've had one chance and it's over at one strike.
Speaker 2:You're out, yeah, yeah yeah, and same within sport yeah right, maybe, um, you know, yeah, maybe you've you're, you're a billet. Uh, son, daughter and I've been around hockey long enough. There was a city I lived in before. There was this really insubordinate kid that you know went from team to team and no billet family wanted him right. Constantly was causing problems. Well, what? I pull this kid aside and say that's it, you're done, you're out. No, I probably want to sit down and say what's going on in your life, like why are you going through so much difficulty? Why is your hair blue? Why are you staying up till four in the morning? You know, on your computer, what are you doing on your computer? Yeah Right, so, um, understanding people rather than just At the same time.
Speaker 1:I've seen that situation where someone has come alongside of someone. Say what's going on. Person says what. Someone has come alongside of someone. Say what's going on. Person says what's going on. Then there is no change, they go right back into it. And some people even said, boy, if you would have realized no one's ever came down on me. Everyone always just comes alongside of me and wants to know my feelings, where I wish someone would have been. I guess you'd say a sterner dad and said, hey, listen, this is wrong. You have one chance to shape up. If you're not going to shape up, then you're losing your spot, you're out of the house. And so it's like how do we have discernment to deal with people and help people properly? And I think a lot of that is. There's not one solution for everyone. In regards to sometimes with dealing with the outcome of something At the same time, there is a solution. So I'm not trying to contradict what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I'm saying is there's no easy way to go at it.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's an easy answer it's Jesus, obviously, that's what we're talking about is, you know, leaning into the power of the Holy Spirit. But this topic is so broad because it can manifest itself in so many different ways. Athlete's performance can start to dwindle because they might be addicted to have a sex addiction or an alcohol addiction or drugs, or you can't sleep, so they're maybe medicating with drugs at night, or, you know, gambling.
Speaker 1:Whatever it might be these things that are leading you down a difficult well and it and it's not always the guy who's like struggling at it, like I'm on the worst team, I have no goals this like you hear stories of who have won championships and they're racing in their Ferrari and almost go over a cliff. Deion Sanders is an example of that. Listen to his testimony and I'm not vouching for everything Deion Sanders says or does, but I'm just saying his testimony about coming to Christ is amazing, where he was at wit's end after winning the whole thing and it still wasn't enough for him. At the same time, someone might have you know, listen, it was the fact that I struggled with this little thing while I was playing junior hockey and that's what changed me. And so everyone has their aha moment, whether it's from the street preacher or it's from some little old lady that sat next to them and just tapped them on the shoulder and said are you doing okay today? Right, Right.
Speaker 2:What I found interesting. Um, as you talked about Deion Sanders, there's so many athletes and you and I, when we're talking about the topic of addiction, we're talking about this that a professional athlete wins a championship, wins another championship, and I've heard often that that's when sometimes drug addiction follows at the end of their career, because they're looking for something to put in that spot of the rush of 60 000 people if you're playing football, 20 000 for hockey.
Speaker 2:What is going to fill that void? That can bring me the satisfaction that I used to get. And again we go back to the root, though. Where did that start? Because that doesn't just yeah and so I got randomly. It's like I was a great hockey player, won a bunch of championships and I'm gonna start doing coke because I can't get that feeling anymore, like that started somewhere. That's right. So where in your mind does addiction start?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's not always where someone had a void. I think it was where they discovered that they had an absentee of Christ, because if Christ is the solution, the void has to be an absent part of that. And so you can think of things like whether it's physically, mentally, not just only spiritually, where it's like, okay, an athlete physically has to prepare themselves, train themselves, equip themselves, and some guys will even say, sometimes even in joking, your body is a temple and be like well, no, as a believer, if I'm created in the image of God and I'm part of God's creation and I have purpose and I listened to episode, whatever it was on purpose is a good one. That we touched a little bit on that. It was near the beginning.
Speaker 2:I was going to shout a number out. I'm like no, no, no, I think it was number two.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, it's important to have purpose. But so, therefore, we should be respectful of our body and how we treat it and what we put into it and what we deliver out of it, and so it's not always what we're eating and consuming and, physically, in training, it's what comes out of the body, because what comes into the body will be digested and will come out of the body. That's biblical in itself, and so it's not always just physical or spiritual, but even the mental side of it. What do I take in mentally? What am I teaching myself? What am I spending time investing into? That will also become an outcome as part of it, and I think wherever there's a lacking and a void of it.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we fill things in with habits and routines that can be negative and all of a sudden, we think that they're helping us and therefore we want more of it and more of it and more of it. And when, in preparation for this, we talked about it, that's the deeper part of things when, all of a sudden, we find out that it's like things we have trouble stopping. Okay, I've tried this and I think it's working, or it gives me this little bit of edge, or I think it helps me, propel me into this. Therefore, I can't stop doing it, even though I know maybe the long-term effects of it, not the short-term gratification. But the long-term outcome isn't going to be good.
Speaker 2:Dopamine is probably the biggest killer, I would say, of our society right now. So watch a lot of videos on. You know how to overcome addiction, whether it be pornography or sex or addiction. Money, whatever it is. Short-term gratification, in my opinion, is the killer of our society, trading short-term gratification versus long-term satisfaction.
Speaker 1:Well, and we even see it in life. I often use a phrase that I heard years ago, where we now live in a generational period where we want in three years what it took our parents generation 30 years to accumulate. I'm going to come out of school. I want a job that has six weeks vacation. I want this salary. I want a new house. I want a new car where mom and dad maybe had two sleeping bags that were zipped together on an apartment floor that they rented out until they saved enough for their down payment. Yeah, drive to use beater that they'd have to put thousands of dollars in just to keep up so they could go to work, mm-hmm. But it wasn't all this instant stuff, but it grew over time, grew over time and it's like in business.
Speaker 1:There's a saying that you want to have as as a business owner or participant in business, you don't want to flash in the pan like we're. We did okay as a business or as a person or as individual. Then things went awesome and great. They will not sustain if that happens in the same way with habits and other things we put in. Can't do all you want. I did 40 curls tonight. I'm going to be jacked tomorrow I'm going to be huge. No, there's a saying in business that says consistent, sustained growth. One does not happen without the other. Without consistency, nothing will be sustained, nothing can be sustained without consistency. There will be no growth without consistency or sustainability. So you have to have all three of those things, not just in business but in life, in spiritually, physically, mentally. You have to have these things in order to have healthy growth.
Speaker 2:Here's why I believe that I think scripture and biblical principles can be so profoundly counter-cultural to our society because, but yet they're the antidote to what we need. They're counter call. Say that again. They're counter-cultural to our society, but they're the antidote. They're what we're all looking for. They're what we're all looking for.
Speaker 1:They're what we're all looking for, but at the same time, society doesn't want any part of.
Speaker 2:So here's my example. Okay, you will find people on Instagram, youtube, who are making millions of dollars creating videos. Kids, hi, I'm playing with a toy. Nine million views last week. They're making piles of cash. They'll say, oh, I can't zip two sleeping bags together and get one. I just got everything that I wanted in a year, right, do you want food? Okay, open up my phone, honey. What do you want tonight? Chicken sandwich, it'll be here in five minutes. I'm going to order a vehicle. It's going to go to Eastern Canada. What do you want on it? This, this, this, this send. It'll be there in three days. Right, that's our society. Yeah, we're programmed now, now, now, I want to meet somebody online. Sure, where are they? New York yeah, I just signed up for the site. We're chatting. We're going to talk on the phone tomorrow. Scripture is the opposite of that, right, scripture talks about sowing and reaping. Those things don't come instantly, right, you have the Holy Spirit that comes into your life. You're instantly changed, but the habits that create a great disciple take time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I totally agree with that, and because you can see evidence of it everywhere. Thankfully, there is a remnant in society where we see a group of people that are trying to do their best. I saw someone had pointed this out not too long ago and if I get it wrong, I think I'll still get the point across. But what he was trying to point out is the fact that the world, you'll have that one person who makes that video that makes 90 million views. There's also 90 million people that want to be that one person. Then you have the one person that's just trying to struggle to get by understanding that they have a heart change, they have life change, they have that void filled with Christ, but they still have to go out to that worldly job that 90 million other people have, that they're going to take the brunt of punishment for because of now that faith that they've added into it.
Speaker 1:They've now decided to walk on the road less traveled in order to run that path that everyone else is walking in. And as they're running by them, everyone's like why is he running? What's up with that Like? Why isn't he walking with the rest of us? Why is he taking that hard? Why did he just run through the bushes, through all those twists and turns and hills, and that's the difficult route? Why did he just take that? And then all of a sudden he pops out later on and be like, oh, you were way ahead, how did you get ahead of us? Then they get angry at that person and it echoes what even Christ said, like to his disciples like they will hate you because of me, and even saying that to his own family. It was just like no, like they will hate you because of me, and it's mind-boggling to the people. Like you said, the antidote's right there in front of me and I'm it's.
Speaker 2:It's mind boggling to the people, like you said, the antidotes right there in front of them. So, to get back on track for what we want to talk about, what we've been talking about, the concept of addiction and I think you know it's been such a great, informative conversation. I hope you've enjoyed it today as well. That jesus and the holy spirit and god are unseen, right. Our society gravitates to what they can touch, what they can feel, and yet those things don't satisfy, take a flight. Everything is amazing. Nobody is happy. However, the one thing faith is a product of things unseen, as scripture says. So by putting faith in jesus, which you cannot see, yet you can feel and you can be part of that experience by being obedient through the Word of God, which eventually, through habits and routine, consistently, will put you better off than where you are.
Speaker 2:It's phenomenal in our society and people will ask okay, well, are christians, christian marriages that are falling apart? There are christian people who cheat on their wives and their husbands. There are christians in addiction, pastors falling for the pulpit? There absolutely are. Why? Because there's a component of sin right somewhere along the way in every human, as you talked about. You know, the one thing we didn't mention in this podcast was denying yourself, taking up your cross and following me and for me when it comes to addiction. You talked about habits and this and that and doing these things. Well, there's a huge, important component to that of denying yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you taking those things away from your?
Speaker 1:life Absolutely and if you want a good read about that, if you're new to the Bible, once you get through the gospels Matthew, mark, luke and John, acts is the continued story after the resurrection of Christ and about what his followers did and how the church was formed and started and also the persecution that came along with that starting. Then you get into a book called Romans, and Romans is how do I live now that I have faith? And you'll read it and you'll see that there is an element of struggling against what my flesh wants, about what my body wants. There's a struggle as well about implementing what God wants in my life. There's going to be a desire in order to fulfill myself and not seek after the things of God. There's going to be this constant cause and effect. By that There'll be quality reminders that the path is one that is least traveled, but it is a path, and one of the famous things is the Romans Road.
Speaker 1:And the Romans Road goes and it says, like it has those famous verses where it's like for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is salvation through Jesus Christ. But it continues on with hope and the message is out of. Whether you struggle with addictions or you struggle with habits, or maybe there's things that you simply want to change in your life, there is hope and that hope is only found in Christ Jesus and having a relationship with him, understanding that your sin, the things that you've done wrong, can be forgiven, and that Christ wants to have a relationship with you because he's already done the work of the forgiveness Right. The forgiveness is there for you already, yeah.
Speaker 2:You have to accept it, though. Yeah, though, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to prove to to god that you're worthy. You're already worth. You're chosen. God, god chose you. You were chosen and adopted at his son. You don't have to do anything to prove to him. Yeah, hey, I now I have to do this.
Speaker 1:No, no, like you were trust him. Yeah, you trust him. I have faith. Do this. No, no, like you were trust them. Yeah, you have faith, you are completely forgiven.
Speaker 2:Um, second timothy, chapter 2, verse 22. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the lord from a pure heart. And I think so as someone who's struggled through addiction in my life and you know a lot of people close to me and I think there's many of us listening to this who have battled through addiction as well. You know, I think in society today we have started to celebrate the victim rather than the victor, right? So somebody, if you are buried in this wow, you are such a hero well then, there's a component to that. Sometimes, things that happen to you. There are terrible things and I'm not downplaying the stuff, please hear us when we say this. We're not downplaying the severity of the evil that's in the world, but it's important to remember that.
Speaker 2:Let's celebrate the victor, the story of the victorious. If you are stuck in an addiction, you feel like that's who you are. Scripture has something opposite. They say you're more than a conqueror. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So don't feel like that is your ending story. That's just your starting line.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and hopefully we'll be able to get to more interviews. If you've listened to previous episodes, you've heard interviews and really that is the testimony and the story of different athletes, people that are involved in sport, that Christ has impacted their life and therefore impacted how they do sport. If you want to listen to more episodes, you can find us where podcasts are found, and I hope you enjoyed this episode, as we've discussed the last two episodes Habits and Addiction.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Have a great day.
