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Christianity Today, May, 2008 |

The Benefits of Brokenness

Why I sometimes wish I was an alcoholic.

Philip Yancey | posted 5/27/2008 09:27AM

Listening to the rhetoric this election season, one might assume that a new batch of politicians in Washington will solve the problems facing this country, not to mention the planet. Elect candidate X, ...

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Discocrisco

Posted: June 08, 2008 2:58 PM

That is why I cannot go to AA. The higher power to me is clearly God and I use non-12 step groups to hide from my belief system. I am not willing to confront my own belief system I am very skeptical about Christian faith but in the end that there is enough faith to believe. I cannot get rid of the fact that Christ rose from the Dead even though I am staunch belever in evolution. It seems that I am very skeptical on Christianity but the belief in the resurrection is considered to be a historic event in my mind is a reality. I bury my head in Secularism but the problem is that I cannot deny the faith. I wanted to leave but own damn believes bring me back to the church. Why does God allow this happen? God should throw me off the boat but God does not give up? Great, A secular liberal who is reculantly coming back to the Chruch by God's Will Discocrisco

Anyulled

Posted: June 05, 2008 4:52 PM


Grettings, I'd Like to translate this article to spanish and publish it in my blog, linking you as the source of this article. Is it posible?

Rodrigo Arrais

Posted: June 04, 2008 8:58 PM


Yancey reminds us that we need to remain humble and open for God´s grace. There´s no big or small sin but, for sure, the ones we think are the small ones- can bring more destruction on the long run.

Ephrem Hagos

Posted: June 01, 2008 3:03 PM

Looking for cure to the problems of death and evil in Paul's Epistle to the Romans is like barking the wrong tree or showing preferance to the Apostle rather than to the Master. It is the latter who, through the cause and effect of His death, destroyed the devil who had the power over death setting us free from the fear of death. In spite of the position of Biblical scholars to the contrary, the only source of such sound and applicable doctrine is found, firsthand, in the Gospel of the glorious and blessed God manifested only on the exclusively "finished" work of Jesus on the cross (1 Tim. 1: 10-11)! This is open for our verification. By the grace of God, I have as did Paul!

Anonymous

Posted: May 31, 2008 6:33 PM

Yancey's article beautifully and subtly recognizes that the 'gospel' has been and always will be available to every broken human who surrenders to a Higher Power. Ego deflation is the way to Spirit or as Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” etc. What the Christian perspective often misses, however, is that growing an ego is just as necessary as surrendering it. Irenaeus understood this when he suggested that the purpose of this planet requires a phase of Edenic ego-building, expulsion, pain and suffering. While we are responsible for our sins, we did not create this Cosmic University by our sins any more than an accountable algebra student created the problems to be solved. Also, evangelicals are addicted to inappropriate exclusivism and intolerance, and in need of hitting bottom. The biggest egoistic sin amongst evangelicals, keeping them from a true experience of the fruit of the Spirit, is theological hubris and sectarian self righteousness - the Jewish sin in Romans 2-3.

Ridiculous...

Posted: May 30, 2008 3:26 PM

One must be very carful when making comparisons to AA and Christianty. The God of AA is a one of your own making and can be nothing other than the higher group conciousness. Jesus said "No man cometh unto to father but by me." Although the Lord's prayer is said at AA meetings any other mention of Christ would be looked down upon. Christ came that we may be free from our sins, not sit in meetings for 4 or 5 hours each week and dwell upon them. Why do Christians subscribe to the belief that only a 12 step meeting program can help the alcoholic and that's where they should look, not the freedom that is found in a personal relationship with Christ. As far as wishing one were an alcoholic; this is an absurd statement. As someone who struggled with an alcohol addiction for two years I feel that I qualify to comment on this. Alcohol addiction will take you to a place of spirtual deadness and turn your life into a miserable experience that is void of any joy or happiness.

Donna C

Posted: May 29, 2008 3:01 PM

There is a passage in the Big Book of AA that says "For years I was sure the worst thing that could happen to a nice guy like me would be that I would turn out to be an alcoholic. Today I find it's the best thing that has ever happened to me." Amen! For many years I was willing to surrender my drinking problem to God, but not much else. Only in my complete alcoholic brokeness did I become willing to cry out "Okay, God! Please take it ALL!" That was the beginning of my four-year journey through sobriety and the 12 steps which has brought me to a deep personal relationship with God and a peace and joy I never dreamed existed.

Ted	Posted: May 29, 2008 12:32 PM

Nine years ago, just short of my 63rd birthday, I suffered a stroke that left me paralyzed on my left side. Five days later, my wife of 20 years filed for divorce - now wanting to be tied to an invalid. Though once active in church, I had been out of fellowship for more than 20 years as I pursued an engineering career that culminated in my own small consulting practice. As the divorce drug on for nearly a year, I bottomed out both financially and emotionally. Devastated, I prayed not for restoration, but for forgiveness. GOD indeed forgave and restored my body to the point I could again work. I now work at every opportunity for a Jewish Carpenter named Jesus Christ! Sometime as an engineer, full time as a disciple, and when allowed to do so, as a lay minister.

Robert E. Baker

Posted: May 29, 2008 12:26 PM


Awsome

John von dem Beck

Posted: May 29, 2008 1:57 AM

He is right, without going far enough with his thesis: seeing Christians who are hungry sent to soup-kitchens by other Christians (who then trust that they never need to see them again) or Christians who are homeless sent to shelters--even if those institutions are run by Christians--could not be farther away from the ways in which the earliest Christians behaved. Pagans throughout the Empire were stricken by Christians' kindness to one another, not by their efficiency in impersonally institutionalising one an other. And the odd Christian--here&there--still lives this Christian life, e.g. the Cardinal of a major Italian city in the '60s who put up as many homeless youth as he could fit in his palace--he did not molest one ! With regard to flagrantly evil ones, Yancey is not well-informed. A good friend who converted to Judaism 20 yrs ago has progressively created a mind&life for himself which is antithetical to everything for which Christ stood, and feels better than ever.

Anonymous

Posted: May 28, 2008 10:44 PM

I was a desperate seeking for help to be lifted out of the drugs mire. To be imprisoned for at least 7 times for various crimes connected to my drugs addiction. When i heard the gospel and with a great relief believe, but it wasn't long before i was back on drugs, to be exact 3 years, until some years later i personally admitted that i cannot do anything even .with my believing in Christ Beside believing I ought to just give up all and to put a total and complete trust in God. then God helped me to see my weakneses and all my bankruptcy, finally i now walk with a spirit filled strength. My point is we can believe in Christ yet at the same time not admitting our fallenness. Most of our belief and understanding still belongs to a carnal mind. I'm glad i was a down and out intravenous drug addict who experienced my own wretchedness and realising that only submitting to a higher power, that is the Lord Jesus and am useful now for Him. In submitting, i regained new hope.

lori	Posted: May 28, 2008 9:41 PM

I don't understand...aren't we all, including Philip, "broken" creatures filled with sin? I thought a Christian is someone who has, finally, realized how horrible his sin is--USUALLY a "hit bottom" experience. So, my answer to the question "Have you hit rock bottom?" is "Yes!" (And I trust all the Christians herein have come to that point in order to give up: to let go and 'let God!') Maybe I missed something here, but my sense is that Phil has simply written what we already know, albeit a nice reminder, but nothing profound as well as without new insight. Just the same old "Old, old, story" and that's good enough for me!

not like we once were For Jeff

Posted: May 28, 2008 12:47 PM

Peter in his Second Letter (1Pe 1:14) wrote: do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. We are to l;eave aside the way of the perishable flesh and be born again of the righteous Spirit. 1Pe 1:23 - "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." This counts for all of us. Everyone has lived under the desires of the flesh, whether homosexual or heterosexual. But everyone who is new in Christ must become free of the flesh because the flesh fails us. 1Pe 3:18 - For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit. We are all the unrighteous and must leave behind the flesh.

Tami F

Posted: May 28, 2008 10:00 AM

Thank you for your article "why I sometimes wish I was an alcoholic". I happen to be studying the book of Romans taught by Beth Moore. I also happen to be a greatful recovering alcoholic coming up on my 3 yr sobriety date on 7-6-05. I thank God for my alcoholism; a not-so-suble evil that brought me to repentance, gifting me with His wonderful grace. I have often been told by other believers, having never strayed far off the beaten path, that they envy my faith (in a good way of course). He also has made clear my purpose here on this earth. I'm going to school to become a drug and alcohol counselor. It's true-He does replace the years the locusts have eaten. I'm 40 and ALIVE in Christ! Thanks be to God! (His mercy IS new every morning!) Tami

Jeff	Posted: May 28, 2008 9:54 AM

There is no one righteous not even one. So true and I know that this is me. And yet sadly look and listen to how Romans 1 is used to demean, segregate, and Samaritanize (my word) gay men and lesbians. We continue to be castigated as "other", "sinner", "perverted", "corrupter of children", "the demise of the American family". Paul reminds us that one only has to go no further then themselves to realize we are without excuse. When will people who say they love and fear God listen and stop judging people like myself a Christian gay man? When will Christian men and women truly learn that God loves us all and it is the way of the cross that brings us all into unique relationship?

alison

Posted: May 28, 2008 9:26 AM


Brilliant! For all my reading of Romans, I have never really grasped how Paul used "they," "you," and "we" to make a point. Thank you.

sam	Posted: May 28, 2008 12:26 AM

great article it always reminds me the christian walk always represents the walk by faith. manyatimes although i admit this while getting stumbled upon it through a word or through preachings, i gets backtracked into a walk by works to get justified. a feeling of self righteousness is so subtle that you scarcely get note of it unless you have a closs abiding relationship in christ. always we wants to get the credit in leading the christian life instead of giving the glory thats due to the lord for living out that life through me. It became once again an eye opener to me to think that unless i seek the grace daily the righteous life is simply impossible

Nate	Posted: May 28, 2008 12:15 AM


A great article, I myself am a recovering alchoholic, I completly understand and agree that those of us having gone down hard roads, now broken do have something special through the daily humility to stay sober and allow Jesus to lead are lives.

Larry from Arkansas

Posted: May 27, 2008 6:50 PM


The Benefits of Brokenness, Why I sometimes wish I was an alcoholic, by Philip Yancey should be read by every disciple who truly wants to be like Jesus. I have preached to others for over 40 years; this very fine article "preached" to me. It literally drove me to my knees. Thank you for printing it.

We must never forget where we began before grace

Posted: May 27, 2008 6:43 PM

this isn't an advert for the AA nor for soul-searching confessions but is the simple truth that all of us are sinners; we must drink it in deeply until every one of us is humbled and ashamed;admitting that we do believe that we are owed salvation by God. None of us is owed salvation! None of us deserves salvation. None has the right to salvation. Not one of us! Simply through God's loving plan to save us was an option given to us, to save us from the righteous judgement of God. Through his plan of crucifixion the full wrath that belongs upon you and me is passed onto Jesus, so that by his wounds we are healed. So we must never slip into the sick mode of believing that we ever did anything to deserve the grace we are then shown. We are shown much grace when we are believers and, so, this grace can (by our own evil) lull us into the disgusting sin of believing that we deserve the grace by what we have done. Jonah turned against God believing the world (Ninevah) is more evil than himself.

Sharp

Posted: May 27, 2008 5:15 PM

George, I believe Phil was being a tad tongue-in-cheek when he contrast "flagrant" and "everyday" sins. He makes a commentary that the average reader might make ("Hmm. Why did Paul mix in the whoppers with those baby sins?") and then points out how Paul slammed the door on that line of thought. Also, he's not saying he wishes he had bigger sins to repent. He's saying he wishes he were part of a fellowship like AA where rigorous honesty and humility are demanded about ALL their shortcomings, not just their drinking. Steps 4 through 7 (look them up) are about making a searching and fearless moral inventory of all transgressions large and small, confessing them to God and to another person, and completely surrendering them to God to remove them and work them out of their character.

Wm. S

Posted: May 27, 2008 4:26 PM


-star AA serves all kinds of gods. Jos 24:15 Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Lk 13:3,5 ...unless you repent,you will perish... Jn 3:3 ...unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God.

Jim	Posted: May 27, 2008 4:09 PM

Yancey makes a point for all aspiring Christians: we all must confess our sinful-addictive nature in order to receive God's grace. As one of THE REAL ADDICTS, the concept of God's grace for me (and people like me) is the realization that God's forgiveness of my addict nature -- whether for alcohol or other drugs, fame and glory, possessions, or vices -- is totally conditioned on the fact that God loved/loves me/us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Son Jesus as atonement for sin and intercessor for forgiveness to eternal life in God's heavenly kingdom.

Susan

Posted: May 27, 2008 3:59 PM

Yancey never disappoints! This is a great article and it led me to fire up my Bibleworks software and check Romans 3 in Greek. Interesting thing I found: in verse 22 the righteousness of God is through the faith of Jesus Christ--"dia" followed by the genitive case (which is the case of the nouns faith, Jesus and Christ) is translated "through" not "in"! So--we are justified by the faith of Jesus! It's not our profession of faith--its been done FOR us BY Jesus. Comments???

Discerning believer

Posted: May 27, 2008 3:00 PM


It's highly unfortunate Philip Yancey and Christianity Today feel the need for a sensationalistic subtitle. I've known older born-again Christians who had that same humility...and who would deal with others without the need for the sensationalism. This subtitle made me cringe.

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