Daring Greatly

Unholy Addiction is an episode of  This Is Life with Lisa Ling.

It's a community many might not associate with addiction - the Mormon Church. For years the Mormon Church has struggled to help those who are addicted to painkillers and other drugs.

What stood out to me was the factor that secrecy played in creating the addictions. I am also present to the trap we can fall into by surrendering to what the word addiction might be creating in us. Dallin Oaks recently wrote that:

It is helpful to focus on four different levels of involvement with pornography: (1) inadvertent exposure, (2) occasional use, (3) intensive use, and (4) compulsive use (addiction).

Being willing to be vulnerable means being willing to give up our masks, the ones we picked up earlier in life. It is a paradox to think that being vulnerable will give us strength. I believe it to be true. Being vulnerable to my wife means being willing to be honest with her. When I feel weak. When I lose faith. When I want to push her away. I can tell her so I don't put up barriers so we can be as one. Brene Brown is giving me insight into vulnerability and its bane, shame. I am learning to be shame resilient.

I have also been learning how embracing paradoxes can make breakthroughs available to me. Falling to Heaven is teaching me to make my load light by taking on me the yoke of the Savior Jesus Christ. That if I am to find my life, I am to lose it in the service of God.

Life is good. My marriage is growing vibrantly, I am planting the seeds of transformation in my career. Bring it on.