Dismissed: Lessons Learned from Sin Addiction

By Mike Farrell

Lessons Learned from Sin Addiction is a book about one man’s fall from grace and the journey back. In these pages, we explore learning to recognize our fallen condition, our need for accountability, and our privilege and ability to trust our heavenly Father to make a way out of our self-imposed wilderness. Sometimes, the road to recovery must start with disaster; but overcoming sin addiction is not only recovery, but redemption.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781636306674

Mike Farrell

Best known for his eight years on M*A*S*H and five seasons on Providence, Mike Farrell is also a writer, director, and producer. Farrell has served on human rights and peace delegations to many countries around the world. He is the author of Of Mule and Man and Just Call Me Mike, which was a Los Angeles Times best-seller.

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Paralyzed by Sin

Paral’ysis, noun [Gr. to loosen, dissolve or weaken.] Palsy; the loss of the power of muscular motion, or of the command of the muscles.

—Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Paralysis inhibits every aspect of healthy muscle movement, restricting one’s abilities to move freely. Paralysis even inhibits healthy spiritual cognitive thought as nerves, tendons, and skeletal structures are compromised. This inability prevents an extremity from receiving the necessary instructions as severed nerves cannot properly ignite the electrical spark in the synaptic process. No matter how determined or how much thought or effort one puts into this process, it will never happen, especially if those nerves are permanently and irreparably severed. However, there are also those times where paralysis is temporary and movement can occur through intensive surgery, physical therapy, allowance of time for the swelling to subside, sheer determination, or even supernatural miracles which are performed by the hand of God.

Our lives are in many aspects like this paralysis. When we yield to the wicked circumstances of sin, we may have become so hardened by personal or interpersonal experiences which sometimes permanently sever our conscience and how we choose to react to and confront the sin of addiction. Sometimes these moments of paralysis are only temporary, like during a job loss, financial crisis, or death of a loved one which makes us question what God is doing. We are like the nation of Israel that roamed the desert because of their questioning what God was doing. We have our moments of paralysis, pity parties, where we ask God disrespectfully, Why? I thought he took care of his children. It’s okay to ask why. But it’s not okay to focus on it.

We all too often forget we are a creation of God and are among those who have the opportunity to be adopted and included into the family of God—through salvation! We all too often forget he wants only the best for us—as he provided Adam and Eve at the dawn of creation. They lived in the most perfect environment man has ever known, a sinless, perfect environment, yet they too became paralyzed by the actions of the great accuser of man and their decision to not do the right thing. Their paralysis sank all mankind into an eternal sin paralysis that required a supernatural miracle of salvation for a cure! Ever since that time, man has roamed aimlessly searching for this perfect and elusive environment through reliance upon their own efforts (education, welfare, environmentalism, humanism, etc.) to preempt the penalty of our sin of disobedience. Man, until he realizes he is impotent, blind, halt, and erringly dependent upon his own abilities to overcome his sin addiction, will remain with the multitudes waiting for the moving of the water (Jn 5:3)…but unable to receive the miracle in his own abilities, eventually fading off into eternity, sentenced into an eternal hell.

When we view the genesis of sin, we find that both man and woman were thrust together, feeling the same consequences of their sin, which was prompted by their united failure to comply with what God commanded them to perform—If you love me keep my commandments (Jn 14:15, 15:10). Sometimes our sin is a single effort of debauchery, while in other situations we have a companion in our sinful acts that keep us firmly grounded in sin. But, nonetheless, sin and its consequences are dealt with individually; and there is no one to blame but ourselves when we eventually get discovered.

We come to find that since creation in the garden of perfection, even the great accuser of man found the only two humans in existence to prey upon. With these two, he was able to devour as a roaring lion (1 Pt 5:8) the flesh of man, at first individually and then collectively. We can only imagine the conversation that isn’t recorded in the Bible between God and the accuser, but I imagine it would have been similar to the conversation recorded in Job 1:8 and 2:3 where God said twice, Hast thou considered my servant? But, unlike Job, both Adam and Eve succumbed to the wiles of Satan (the great accuser of man) and chose to trust in their own knowledge, abilities, and efforts instead of heeding God’s Word thou shalt surely die (Gn 2:17). Think back to your own actions when you first started your personal route to sin addiction. It started off small, while you were in a position of vulnerability, anxious to tempt the hand of God unknowingly because you were able to silence the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The voice in your head said, Yeah, hath God said ‘Ye shall not surely die’? Well, maybe not those words exactly, but it was something like that. Maybe it was It’s only once or No one will ever know; or maybe you just succumbed to peer pressure like Adam and lacked the courage to say No, it’s not right, thus saith the Lord!

This conversation set in motion the initial steps toward the glorious path of redemption—through Jesus Christ—when Adam and Eve were exposed to the consequences of their sin. When the eyes of them both were opened they knew they were naked, just like an adulterous couple after they have completed their sinful act. They, in their complete nakedness, were thrust into action to cover their sin, working in their own effort rather than immediately calling upon their Creator and asking for forgiveness. You see, sin paralyzes our thoughts and thus impedes our abilities to take the necessary corrective actions toward a merciful God who is willing to forgive. Sewing fig leaves is a works-based salvation that will fail. We sew a string of lies and deceit to cover our sins, and this gives us a false hope that all is good. It’s in that false doctrine of deceit that a new life of lies is birthed, and when fully grown, it will still bear the consequences which must be dealt with from a God of