“Faith Without Works Is Dead?”

A friend of mine has been having some dating woes lately, constantly coming up short in the relationship department. When I suggested they let God bring someone into their life instead of them constantly searching for it, they responded with a phrase that I first came to know in recovery long ago, that being “Faith without works is dead.”

I truly think this phrase, which actually originates in the Bible from James 2:14-26, is often misinterpreted and used incorrectly as I believe it was in this case. Biblically speaking, the original intention of what James was trying to say in his words was not that one must go out there and take some action to develop their faith. It’s quite the contrary actually. When one’s faith is fully entrusted in God, their works follow accordingly.

James was simply letting his audience know that his work in preaching, helping the poor, the needy, etc, was not to develop his faith, it was because of his faith, and that if he didn’t do any of those things then his faith was dead, like a body in a grave which has no soul. A good example of this would be a person who proclaims they live by faith, but yet they choose to ignore a person begging for food or money when they have substance in their pocket to help. Thus saying they have faith is really just empty words.

That’s why I feel it really doesn’t make much sense to use this phrase in the way it often is such as my friend thinking they need to keep taking actions to look for a mate. Interestingly enough, I too used to incorrectly apply the very same passage to my own former dating woes, as there was a point in time where I went on one date after another with none of them ever working out either. Yet I kept telling myself I needed to keep taking action because “Faith without works was dead”, but that only led to me going on numerous dates that went nowhere, spending hours and hours searching through personal ads, and doing whatever I could to find the person I believe God wanted me to be with. Thankfully, I did eventually discover enough faith in God to trust that God would bring someone in my life when I was ready. So I left one personal ad out there and left the rest up to Him and one day my partner of now over four years stumbled across it.

Nevertheless, the point I’ve been trying to make is that this passage from James is widely used so often now by people who believe it means they need to take an action to show God they have faith. Yet, in all reality, people who are walking on a path with God take action because their faith drives them to do so, not because they are trying to increase their faith itself. In my case, it’s my faith in God that has led me to do my works such as writing daily in this blog about topics like this. But saying I have faith in God and not sharing it with the world really does go in line with what James meant when he said “Faith without works is dead.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Heroin, A Drug I’m Grateful I’ve Never Tried

So I’m sitting here in a laundromat waiting on some comforters to dry that required the use of some extra-large machines to clean when I noticed that one of the doors to this place has a wooden slab over it where a large piece of glass once was. I asked the attendant what happened only because the last time I was here, which was about seven months ago, the same door had a similar wooden slab over it. She said there had been another break-in, the third in under a year, with someone probably needing money to get drugs, and more than likely, that being heroin.

The sad reality is that the heroin problem is growing worse and worse here in Toledo and really everywhere else in our country as well. People are dying so much now that it’s hard to be surprised when I hear about another soul passing on due to an overdose from the deadly drug.

Last night I led a meeting at a detox center where a guy said he flat-lined a few months ago from using heroin and had to be shot up with the Narcan anti-opiate drug three times and paddled twice just to be resuscitated. Yet, he said in the same breath that if they don’t find a place for him to live once he leaves there, he knows he’ll just return to the same drug for comfort.

You see, that’s the insanity of heroin. It’s hard to live with it and it’s hard to live without for those who have ever been addicted to it. Thank God I never tried this drug, because most likely if I did, I’d probably be dead already like four of the sponsees I’ve had, all who were under the age of thirty.

The fact is, there’s a lot of pain going on in our country and so many just don’t seem to want to deal with it these days. Drugs have become the forefront solution to dealing with pain rather than actually walking through it and growing from it.

Look, I have a lot of pain on most of my own days. I’ve also been going through it for quite a while now as well. But yet I’ve remained sober from alcohol and drugs through all of it. And the only solution I’ve found that has kept me that way has been the Higher Power I pray diligently to every day. Take yesterday for example. I was struggling with my pain levels so much so that I went into a bathroom at a Starbucks and kneeled on my bare knees on a dirty floor and asked God for strength.

Sadly, most people don’t want to do things like this to remain sober. They don’t want to pray or do any other thing that will help them walk through their pain and reach the other side of it on a sober level. Instead, when they feel down or low or depressed or ill or something that isn’t a good-feeling, they look for something else to make them feel better, and are usually wanting that to happen pretty quickly.

For many, this downslide begins at a doctor’s office where they initially get hooked to some type of medication. But when the prescription runs out or the doctor weens them off of it, they begin to look for it elsewhere, desperately wanting that pain to remain suppressed. Unfortunately, these days, the thing that most end up doing next is heroin. It’s initially a cheap high and works extremely fast to numb oneself. But it’s also quite deadly, especially when laced with things like Fentanyl, which is a drug that makes the heroin work quicker in the body.

I truly am grateful I have the Higher Power I do and that I seek the help of my Higher Power every day because I know that if I didn’t, I too would be looking to something like heroin to deal with my own pain. Given the level of it I go through on most days, I know that something like heroin would bring ease and comfort immediately. But I also know that as soon as I’d try it, I’d be hooked and would eventually overdose like so many others already have.

So I’m glad that I seek God every day to keep going, to keep enduring, and to keep moving forward into the Light. Because I know that there’s one thing that I won’t ever have to deal with in the Light and that’s feeling the compulsion to do a terrible drug like heroin that robs so many beautiful souls of their lives that I know God wants them to have here on Earth…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson