by
Michael A. Kovach
INTRODUCTION
Recycling of Sin deals with the cause of dysfunctional behaviors based on a biblical beginning, not symptoms, or social stereotypes. Its intent is to attempt dispelling myths and notions that the devil forces people to sin.
As a former substance abuse counselor for the United States Navy, I had the unique privilege of gaining insight into the spiritual condition of many sailors. The reader must understand that military treatment is much different than its civilian counterpart; people undergoing treatment in the military don’t have a choice in treatment. They are ordered to treatment because of an infraction of military law or perceived to have a problem based on their behavior.
Now a civilian, I am no longer a practicing counselor, but I do continue to keep abreast of current trends, discoveries, and insights. In addition, I maintain an active membership with The Association of Christian Counselors as one avenue for continuing education. My gift as a counselor, is still used by the Lord for those He leads into my life, who are called according to His purpose, for His glory and honor, and for their health. There is never a charge for services placed on any individual since I see this as my commissioned ministry from Jesus Christ to freely give as He freely gave us life.
A MAJOR LIFE TRAUMA?
Romans 1:28 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.”
Some view a major life trauma as an event that took place sometime in the past of a person’s life, or usually the distant past, and sometimes the near present past; something that took place within the last five years. This trauma, or event, which some lock away in a secluded place of their mind, is usually considered trivial by those affected, and as a result easily suppressed, or totally denied. There is an emotional consequence to this deliberate hiding that results in the repression of normal feelings due to an unpleasant event. This decision holds a person’s character hostage, by abating emotional responses to trauma and loss. As each response lessens increasingly, different methods of expressing unpleasant events are developed. Some begin to express their pain, or dissatisfaction with inappropriate manners, such as fits of rage, or temper tantrums. Even fraudulent emotions can be staged by acting as if all is OK, or by becoming overly emotional by excessive crying without tears, or laughing during times of loss, or by drawing attention to themselves. These
individuals are very self-disciplined, focused, and calm, or out of control when not controlled by an external source. To themselves they appear in control of their environment, self- confident and ambitious, eager beavers and ready to take the initiative by taking on any assignment. Usually, this type of character employs ethics that border on addiction and imperativeness. Often, their interpersonal skills are underdeveloped, which leads them to be insecure, and causes them to become obstinate, demanding, or abrasive as a means of defense which they believe hides their weakness, or displays their strength.
You see, we never really forget, totally control, or can hide much of anything. We simply dismiss it or refuse to acknowledge a problem exists. Rationalizing becomes common and soon problems are forgotten, at least, that’s what these individuals believe. These types of individuals are vulnerable to criticism and introspection and begin to lie about their life and their character to gain acceptance and approval. These lies sleep in the recesses of their fragile minds, until an unsuspecting event takes place that forces them to remember their vulnerability. Once in a familiar setting, these lies are played back and the emotion of that experience, along with the learned coping strategies, are employed instantly to defend against feelings that seem strange and frightening.
These recurrences of a familiar event, leads individuals into repressing necessary emotions even further. Many convince themselves that what they feel, or don’t feel is normal; while on the inside, there is something stirring that confuses them, trying to tell them that something is not right. When observing those who express the emotions openly and deal with hurt appropriately, they often feel a need to comfort them. But their own sleeping feelings become aroused, and their defensiveness begins. No, they begin to feel pity for these people, believing they are week and not able to be strong when needed. Their response is often hollow, or surface-oriented, displaying a normal by employing tactics that lessen confrontation, such as being politically correct, indirectness, or by not acting or reacting at all. Then, there are those who totally retreat inward, or retreat from confrontation a by altogether. They won’t attempt working through a situation, they simply alter course and dismiss it by considering the event trivial. Many of these individuals often receive a prognosis that indicate some form of psychosis that took place prior to puberty, a personality disorder of any given name, or considered to be suffering from a depressive episode. Eventually, these labels and characteristics, become tools for manipulation and a means of coping in stressful situations. They often lead to a more severe problems such as, alcoholism, drug abuse, spouse abuse, workaholism, eating disorders, shopaholics and even addictions to exercise, or even reading.
It is especially important at this point to state that some of these behaviors could be the result of biological factors which is extremely important to understand. Many individuals have given prognoses based on the behavior alone. Completely disregarding facts in behavior that could indicate a chemical problem. Any counselor ill equipped, could do more harm if all aspects of the individuals medical and mental state are not accurately assessed.
These behaviors have been called many names by physiologists, therapists, social workers and counselors from every persuasion of life. Each argument is correct in its content and observation of those who suffer such traumatic experiences; and who do not have a biological problem.
However, these observations I feel are simply symptom specific, not cause related. What I mean by that is, many see the problem, identify the symptom and label it as the cause. Why not, it appears correct and is an acceptable prognosis to those directly involved. There are even some clear-cut signs that a cognitive therapy approach boarders on helping people arrive at the point of their pain, or by
believing they have reached the underlying cause of the problem. This being accomplished through thought processes. The secular cognitive approach posits that these events are not the cause of emotional problems, but how we think about these events is the underlying problem and if the thinking could be altered, the steps toward emotional health can be taken. It does appear to work for many who undergo cognitive therapy to uncover the thought that suppressed the emotional event.
However, it is usually short lived, with the person returning for additional help not long after therapy is completed. Many Christian therapists employ scriptural logic in their cognitive approach, dealing with the lies of the devil and re-enforcing biblical beliefs in God the therapist and directing individuals to develop the mind of Christ. They are successful in bringing out the facts about repressing sin, the need for forgiveness, the consequences of unforgiveness. Never-the-less, many never reach the actual cause of the pain, which to me, is usually a deception and lie from a very crafty and cunning enemy. Not much emphasis is placed on how the Lord has provided a way out of the devil’s attacks, or how the devil and his band of followers feverishly make a bunch of noise to drowned out the voice of Christ. One of the sadist facts I had to face, is that most people who profess to be Christian really aren’t; they acknowledge Christ, but their idea of belief is misplaced, and their lives in general does not reflect one of holiness or hope. The reason is do the distortions in word meanings, such as the word believe. Many do not have a firm grip on this word. To some, the word simply means to say yes, without any consequences, or responsibility. Others simply use the trust aspect of the word without regard for hole heartedness and reliance. In the amplified bible the word believe is defined as “rely on, trust in, cling to,” and not many do any of those.
Counselors should examine the possibility, that who they are talking to may not believe at all, especially since their problems are still present from a life they were delivered from. It is even conceivable to think that many counselors don’t even consider the unbelief, or the devil, some don’t even acknowledge the possibility.
I have found an underling hate of God, due to a misunderstanding of His role in individual lives, or the attitude of failing God by not overcoming sin. Neither of these are attitudes of a believer, at least none I have studied in history, or are associated with today. When talking with people who have these characteristics concerning their relationship with God, I often get a variety of responses, mostly I hear: “Jesus will take care of it.” “God is in control, I don’t need to concern myself.” “I’ll just pray it away.” “I’m not Job, can’t God see that.” “None of this would have happened if the devil didn’t make me do it.” “God did this to teach me a lesson.” “God hates me, I can’t do anything right in his sight.” In some cases, I would get a similar story from someone who did not believe in God at all. At least that’s what they claim. Most would always comment: “you know, it was the other guy’s fault that I drank too much and ended up in jail.” “It wasn’t my fault, man, I was pushed into doing it.” “It’s no big deal, I can’t figure out why there’s so much fuss.” “I don’t even think about God, He has nothing to do with my life!” “The devil isn’t real so why blame it on him.” “God’s not against this, or that, he’s a God of love.”
Now that remark gets me going every time. How can someone believe in good, but not darkness? That always starts the red lights and sirens going! This is a personalized refusal to accept anything wrong, or inappropriate. Some hidden hate is present; hate for someone because of what they did or said. Here, is where intellectualization can come into play and to illustrate what I mean here’s a brief definition: Intellectualization—avoiding the awareness of severe inferiority feelings and other unconscious conflicts by the excessive use of intellectual vocabulary, discussions, and philosophies. There is real danger here, no one can claim one side of life
without the other—it’s not cognitively possible, but it is spiritually; especially when the individual is separated from God and does not have any form of relationship with Him. In most cases, these individuals have an alienation of affection and tend to be loaners and find it difficult to be affectionate, even if married.
It should be obvious that there is trivial difference between to believers and non-believers by the response’s; and the direction blame has taken should be just as clear. Christians repress inward by self-blaming and those who claim not to believe, repress outward by other blaming, so feelings of guilt and shame don’t affect them. On one hand, there’s the martyr, and on the other, opposition and a failure to identify with the cause.
What I’m going to propose next will sound strange at first. Try to bear with me on this, and I’ll try to make as much sense about my understanding that I can. In some medical circles, the root cause of these types of problems could receive a prognosis of mixed emotional disturbances during childhood, oppositional disorder, or a misery and unhappiness disorder. All of which would be true, in respect to natural observation and accepted standards. These prognoses would indicate a trauma occurring early in life, or from a near past-experience, as the root causes for the onset of a particular emotional problem. On the other hand, I believe, that the early event in a person’s life is not what causes an individual to repress thought, rationalizing their taking place, intellectualizing the trauma, or resorting to manipulation as coping skill. I believe, the event adds to the problem that goes back to the first sin which has been wreaking havoc on man ever since. But how could I say that? What evidence supports such a claim, and what about Jesus’ redemptive work at Calvary? What about saved by grace, or predestination? It’s true. The blood of Christ washes us from the stench of sin and cleanses us, through a new birth in Him as scripture states in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, “Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” However, we have an adversary who lost his power to control death, and now he’s out to deceive, steal, kill, or destroy, any hope a person has. He does this, I believe, by invoking the same tactics he did long ago by leading many to live dual faith, (law and grace). For the law Romans 3:19-20 says: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” And for grace we read in Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Putting these two together by human effort and trying to live a dual life, would cause the strongest Christian to fall flat on their backs. It would be a contradiction of the gospel to attempt a life by Law and Grace. A more appropriate view of law and grace is found in Romans 3:27-31: “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also?
Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? ‘May it never be!’ On the contrary, we establish the Law.” There is the balance for right living and understanding, and this is exactly what the devil attempts to get us to misunderstand. If we allow his
lies to take root, the consequence would be a constant failing to deal with emotional pain that restrains. The real trauma is not what happens to us in life, it’s the separation from God that is the real trauma. And this trauma fuels the Recycling of Sin. As a result, depression sets in because of the anger toward a personal inability to overcome unhealthy habits and sin; pride would take the place of guilt and failure causing the hurt to become hidden or repressed. This is what happened to Adam and Eve as recorded in Genesis 3:8-13, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said, “where are you?” And he said, I heard Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so, I hid myself. And He said, “who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gravest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the women, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” He’s a powerful advisory, the second most powerful in all of creation after the triune God, and we need to realize that his power can no longer physically harm us, that his power can only lie and deceive us, and if we give in to his fiery darts of wickedness, he eventually gets many to believe anything he conjures up. Sadly, even though he’s a powerful being, he’s not the cause, we are! he’s just a symptom of the cause. The apostle Paul gives us a clue in 2 Corinthians 11:3 how this can happen: “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” We must take the responsibility for our pain, failings, and disappointments, and refuse to listen to the devil’s belly aching. Refusing to accept responsibility is the actual root of dysfunctional behaviors and if you look at James 1:14-17 we quickly see where responsibility lies, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.”
Yes, we experience painful events, sometimes even dreadful and horrific ones, but it’s our responsibility to deal appropriately with them by placing them before the Lord and asking for His sustaining power to see us through; we cannot develop the mind of Christ by our own efforts, nor can we overcome the devil and our lusts on our own. If we try, we fail, and if we fail, we end up repressing our failures. There’s a reluctance to take that step into assuming responsibility for situations that we allow ourselves to get into. Consequently, others close to us are asked to take the fallout from our irresponsibleness and assume the blame and guilt for them. That’s the tragedy of dysfunctional behaviors, it births co-dependence and counter-dependence. The devil loves to see God’s children separated internally and externally. It hinders the preaching of the gospel and restrains God’s children from living a holy life; each as a separate member of the body of Christ, becoming complete and mature in Him. I envision the devil and his band of cohorts standing between us and God yelling as loudly as possible to drown out God’s voice. All of us need to stop listening to the noise and begin to listen to the quiet voice we recognize as the shepherds. Counselors need to stress that this devil who hates the very sight of God’s children was rendered powerless to make us do anything we don’t choose to. There is no reason to declare war on the devil, or ourselves Christ has won the war and has assigned us to occupy until He comes. This not only means physical property, but us, because when Jesus prayed before His death, He said to the Father in John 17:9-11, “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom
Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine; and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.” So, I perceive this occupation as the occupation of what is His, the ones He died for.
If you take a close look at the story of the Adam and Eve, you will see each of the characteristics discussed above. In fact, if you look at the story of Cain and Abel, you will see them lived out. In addition, if you look at some of the practices in many churches you will see an occupied sign; and this is not the occupation spoken of earlier. This occupation is one of busyness, and a constant struggle to grow larger and larger. As a result, many believers who need help are sidetracked because of schedules, status, a pre-occupation with the self-life, burn out, overworked pastors and counselors, or an indifference toward others. In many ways the church has become Cain. However, we have an advocate, the high priest Christ Jesus. He’s the one who took the keys of death away from the devil and who gave us freedom, so we no longer need to live a life of constant struggle. He is never too busy to listen to our petitions and give help to those who call upon His name. Now it’s time to make a choice concerning whose voice we will follow, the one who sustains and refreshes us, or the one who lies and deceives us. If the right choice is made, any pain you have is taken as you are transformed into a new creation in Christ Jesus. But this won’t work for anyone if their belief is self-motivated, or copiousness. It can only work with the kind of belief spoken of in scripture, clinging to, relying on and trusting in.
The choice is yours to make!
2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and of a sound mind.”
Copyright January 1996 ©Michael A. Kovach
Christian Underground Journal
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