Alcohol, cocaine, pornography … the sheer heaviness of this trifecta of addictions blew us away and brought us to tears recently when we listened to addict-turned-Catholic evangelist John Edwards’ story of healing from all three (here on the Restore All Things podcast – highly recommend!).

John’s breathtaking vulnerability led us into a conversation about how easy it is to convince ourselves that we are doing well, despite the fact that we are often managing low-grade addictions. Yes, we hear about a guy like John—whose addictions landed him in a jail cell—and think, “Well that’s not me. I’m doing fine.”

But as we unpacked John’s interview, we had to admit how we play with fire on a regular basis with the highly addictive realities that surround and often infiltrate our daily life:   

• Overwork or workaholism (an aside: perversely, our culture praises this addiction, leading to ever-higher dopamine hits for the workaholic)

• Turning to screens too often for entertainment, distraction or more work

• Control, perfectionism, and people-pleasing

• Impulsive purchases and too much eating out, sweets or alcohol

We are nearing the halfway point in our Lenten journey with Jesus into the desert. Each of us—if we’re living out this penitential season as we are called to—is coming face-to-face with the addictive way sin operates in our heart, our home, our marriage, and family.

John Edwards—a husband, father, and successful businessman—finally hit bottom in a jail cell and invited Jesus back into his life. He surrendered the addictions that had reliably helped him disappear from the unresolved pain in his life. He took his mask off, admitted to his lies, and began the long journey of healing.

Do the rest of us—who are playing with the fire of our own addictions, some secret, some public, some politely ignored by our loved ones, some celebrated by the culture around us—really need to wait for a jail cell, figurative though it may be? In a compelling article, John invites all of us to find “strength in vulnerability” through three steps:

• One. “The first step is to become vulnerable with yourself,” he writes.

• Two. “The second step … is to become vulnerable with God.”

• Three. “The last step is to become vulnerable with others.”

“So,” he writes, “take a good look at what’s holding you back.  Decide to become vulnerable with yourself and God in the confessional. Find a group of brothers [or sisters] to become weak with. Follow in St. Paul’s footsteps and become ‘content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when you are weak, then you are strong’ (2 Corinthians 12:10).”