Addiction and Conversion: Crazy Heart and Transformation

March 16, 2010

Continued from Page 2

Which ending is a confused novel reader/movie viewer to choose? How about neither?

I don't want a fast and irrevocable conversion. That's not been my experience. My experience has been that, when conversion becomes complacent, preening in the mirror, admiring its own permanency, that's when we are most vulnerable to being overpowered by cravings we thought were a thing of the past.

I agree with New Testament scholar McKnight -- conversion is a process. Since God is always available to forgive and empower change, relapse is never the final word, no matter how many times we've ended up in the same ditch. It could be a step toward transformation. Anything is possible with God.

Effortlessly clean and sober? Irrevocably drunk and ditch bound? We're all wannabe disciples who aren't out of the woods yet. There's bound to be a better ending for our story than a stick-on bow or being stuck in the ditch.

Alyce M. McKenzie is a Professor of Homileticsat Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

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