At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying: "Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 And said: "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." 4 "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:1-4

The foregoing passage of scripture has been interpreted from many pulpits, usually as a description of the type of faith necessary for salvation. While this is clearly one accurate and vital interpretation, I believe that it is not the only one.

In the process of maturation, we develop many positive character traits and "grow out of" some negative ones. We "do away with childish things." (see 1 Corinthians 13:11) However, most of us also lose some valuable qualities. For example, as children, we had no illusion of self-sufficiency. We were comfortably aware of our dependence on our parents for survival, security, and comfort. As we grew, we were taught to look more and more to ourselves for the meeting of our needs. Eventually, we came to believe the lie of our own self-sufficiency.

Those of us who have fallen victim to addictions have learned the hard way that believing in our self-sufficiency is an absolute barrier to meaningful relationships with God, other people, and even life itself. Such a belief forces us to look inside ourselves for things that are simply not there., things like love, meaning, and connectedness.

Because we do not find these things within ourselves, we experience a sense of deprivation, of hunger. Since we believe that we must not be dependent on anyone else, we seek to fill the gaping holes in our lives with things we erroneously believe we can control; things like alcohol, drugs, lust, food, and work.

Our substitutes may satisfy for a season or two, but in the end we discover that they have only made our "holes" bigger. Indeed, our very survival is often threatened. We discover that we need things from others, but cannot let go of our illusion of self -sufficiency. Asking for help would destroy this chereished fantasy, so we seek to have our needs met by force, turning to aggression and manipulation. In doing so, we isolate ourselves even more. Our pain and emptiness increase in a seemingly unbreakable spiral.

Some of us have found a way out of this spiral. The gateway to our path to recovery is the conscious decision, often made under the duress of our painful circumstances, to abandon the illusion of self-sufficiency. We admit that we were not designed to function as a seperate whole, that we have a built in need for other people and our Creator. We acknowledge that all of our efforts are meainingless without the resources that only God can provide.

Only when we rid ourselves of the insane need to do it ourselves can we begin to connect with others. Only when we put aside our pride do we open the door for God to connect with us. Without these connections, we are doomed. With them, though there is much left to be done, there is hope.