Hitting Rock Bottom

Matthew 7: 24-25

Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.

Commentary:

The term “hit rock bottom” is when the addict finally realizes their addictive behavior is doing harm to themselves and others, and they become more willing to accept that they are powerless, out of control, and they cannot stop on their own. For some their rock bottom might be when their wife leaves them because they were caught in an affair. For others it might be the loss of a job because they were caught looking at pornography on work computers. And for others it might be severe depression and anxiety that sets in that no medical doctor has an explanation for other than to give you medication that doesn’t solve it because the cause hasn’t been eliminated (I have personal experience with this one). The level at which the addict hits rock bottom differs by the individual, but the important aspect is what God wants to teach the addict about our freedom to choose good or evil. I heard it said on the radio today another way to look at rock bottom. Hitting rock bottom is when we come to realize that the bottom rock needs to be God, and isn’t this what is talked about with the wise man chooses the good and builds his life on the solid rock of Christ and His Church. In addition to having Christ as our bottom foundation rock, it is equally important to build our supporting structures by working on the character defects that led us to choose the addiction in the first place, then learning to replace those defects with virtue.