While meditating on today’s readings, I am reminded of what it takes to be a strong servant-leader: virtue. This includes faith, hope, love, humility, courage, honesty, discipline, perseverance, and a willingness to sacrifice. The great prophet Jeremiah had these virtues. He was not afraid to speak God’s truth to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, even if it meant the risk of being destroyed by them. He knew the work God gave him was an important part of God’s plan for salvation. Although he was frightened, he turned to God for help and protection. Even though he was discouraged at times, he never gave up. His virtuous life helped him persevere in doing God’s work.
We can find the same virtues in Jesus. He knew His ultimate destiny was to be put to death. He knew He would be betrayed, ridiculed, spat on, beaten, scourged and die a shameful and excruciatingly painful death on the cross. However, because of His great virtue and love for us, He was willing to suffer and die for our salvation. Jesus called his disciples to have this same virtue because He knew they would also have to suffer for their faith. It was these virtues that enabled them to endure hardship, persecution and even death for their faith. The result of this was the successful spread of Christianity throughout the world.
We too are called to live such virtue in our lives. I stress the need for virtue to all of the men and women I counsel who struggle with pornography addiction. The ultimate goal of recovery is not simply sobriety. It’s transformation – becoming a new creation in Christ. Achieving this requires living a virtuous life. Thus, in addiction to the standard resources for recovery, such as counseling, support groups, education, and monitoring technology, I recommend all my clients work on daily growth in virtue. This helps them weather the tough times, and achieve victory in their recovery and throughout their entire lives! Many of them become great servant-leaders!
Peter C. Kleponis, Ph.D., SATP-C is a Licensed Clinical Therapist and a Senior Advisor for Integrity Restored, which offers resources and hope for healing for those struggling from porn addiction, their spouses, and for parents and clergy seeking to protect others.
So I have been following the daily Lenten practice and I was curious about the pornography references. Is this really big problem? It has been brought up a few times already and we are. It even half-way through lent!
Jill it’s a huge problem and one I’ve been battling for quite sometime it’s just like God to hit on something like pornography at a time like this pornography is a plague and blight on society and on many in the body of Christ I can attest to that.
Praying for All those Affected by Addiction. Amen