Addressing the Symptoms or Cause?

As a kid, I thought there was medicine for every malady.  I didn't realise antibiotics were prescribed for bacterial infections like strep throat and not for viruses like the common cold.  I came to understand taking antibiotics for viral illnesses can lead bacteria to grow resistant against them and be rendered ineffective when needed.  Typical treatments for viruses involve management of symptoms with rest, hydration and pain relief.  In the case of a cold, the nagging cough, runny nose, chills and fever are merely symptoms of a sickness.  These symptoms are not the illness itself, and often it takes the skill of a doctor to identify and treat the root cause of our illness or pain.

I remember years ago pointing out an obvious depression and cracked gyprock on a wall.  The response was, "Oh, that was a hole we fixed."  No doubt an attempt was made.  Since I have experience with patching holes in gyprock, however, a closer look revealed cracked gyprock had not been reinforced and no fiberglass tape had been used to bridge the gap between the pieces which looked to be held together with spackle and paint.  Because the material underneath was never properly repaired, spackle and paint did nothing to address the underlying problem or hide the visible cracks.  For you do-it-yourselvers out there, pressing newsprint into a hole and covering it with spackle doesn't fix anything.

Yet I wonder:  how many times have we done the equivalent of trying to cure a virus with antibiotics or painted over rough work as a "fix?"  People who look for a fix from alcohol or drugs find it doesn't fix anything in the end.  A temporary fix can actually make things worse.  Read through the Alcoholics Anynymous Big Book and you will see many testimonies of alcoholics who never imagined drinking alcohol was the major source of their problems.  They used alcohol to numb themselves or to become who they thought was their better self--and later in their drinking careers were driven to drink to escape that same person.  A.A. is at the core a spiritual program, and only when people are willing to admit they have a problem with alcohol and are willing to do anything to keep from drinking, the program has been amazingly successful.  Some go to meetings and through the motions of the steps, but until they stop drinking alcohol their problems will persist.

While religions focus on do's and don'ts, Christianity is marked by the grace of God who has provided the Gospel to unworthy sinners because He loves us.  Humbly repenting of sin and placing our faith in Jesus, we are born again and given new hearts.  By the word of God, the Holy Spirit and fellowship with believers, God identifies sinful thoughts and motives only He can cleanse and deliver us from.  Pride and fear that have always been dominating features of our lives can be mirculously purged like old leaven from dough, and He is faithful and able to make us a new and unleavened lump.  Paul exhorted Christians in 1 Corinthians 5:8, "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."  If we hold onto resentment, bitterness, pride and malice, how can we obey God with sincerity and truth?  May there be in all God's people a willingness to submit ourselves to Him, to be honest in our love of others, and our lives be sincerely guided by God's truth inside and out.