Recently John rented “Super Mario Brothers” for us to watch on family movie and pizza night. In one of the scenes, Mario and Luigi are down in the sewage system of the city. As they are looking around, Mario suddenly realizes that Luigi is no longer with him. As Mario calls out Luigi’s name, he finds Luigi’s wrench inside one of the tunnels. As he picks up the wrench and walks further into the tunnel, he begins to feel the pull of the vortex. He calls out to Luigi again but still gets no answer. Suddenly, before he even realizes what has happened, he gets sucked into the tunnel and into another world. Soon, he finds himself in a world where nothing is like home. He doesn’t know how to get back nor does he know how to find Luigi…

For whatever reason, this vortex reminded me of a portion of Matthew that I read recently. Matthew 12:43- 45.

“43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were trying so hard to follow the law to the letter by removing anything that even resembled a sin. (Remember how they were constantly trying to catch Jesus and his disciples doing something unlawful on the Sabbath?) Jesus’ entire ministry was spent not in telling them how to follow the law more closely, but in how to LOVE better! Jesus basically spends a majority of his time saying, “Hey!  Yes, you may be following the law, but you are missing the point… I don’t want your actions… I want your heart! Your motives are so very important! 

But back to the issue at hand… The religious leaders were trying so hard to take out the bad/corrupt/sin that they are forgetting one VERY important part… to fill the void! Jesus says that the “It will find the house unoccupied, go in and take with it 7 other spirits more wicked than itself… and the final conditions of the person will be worse than the first.” 

In essence, by only focusing on the removal of the bad, they were creating a sort of vortex in their own lives. Sure they were able to get the bad out, but unless that bad is replaced with something else, something good… a vacuum will form and it will suck in even more evil than before.

Take darkness for example.  What is darkness?  It is not a THING… it is the ABSENCE of a thing.  It’s the absence of light.  So you can’t get rid of darkness without bringing in the light.  The same goes for sin in our lives.  In order to STOP sinning, we must replace those sins with something good.  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. 

This especially holds true for those with addictions of any kind.  It is not enough for an addict to simply STOP engaging in the addictive behavior.  They MUST replace that behavior with something else.  If that behavior is not replaced, a vortex can and will form.  It is by sheer will power that they abstain from the behavior for as long as possible… but when temptation becomes too great and they give in to the temptation, the addiction is often even greater than before. 

I often think of dieting.  I have yo-yo dieted my entire life.  For me,  I would diet… lose weight for a while, feel great… but because I wasn’t filling that void with something positive… when temptation became too great and I slipped, I often got sucked into another world of food, sweet and salty, and before long I had gained back all of the weight I had worked so hard to lose and then some!  (I can literally imagine myself being sucked into the Super Mario Bro tunnel and finding myself in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory… the struggle is real, y’all!) 

I joke about the eating but it rings true with so many types of addictions and sin! Recently a friend of mine lost her son to addiction. He had been clean for 8 months.  In a moment of weakness, he was sucked into the vortex and unfortunately paid the ultimate price for it. I can’t help but wonder how differently his story could have turned out had he replaced that darkness with light… if he had replaced his addiction with God. What if rather than using will power, he tapped into God’s power.  What if he started seeking HIM rather than running from the addiction.  

Only God can answer that question. Only God knows. But as I look at those around me and quite honestly in my own life of sin… What if, rather than simply trying so hard to get rid of the sin, I started seeking God… seeking what HE wants for me and from me. He says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. What if, instead of creating a vortex with the voids, I create help for those around me with the light. What if I let God have his way with me and let him mold me into exactly what He has called me to be? What if I get rid of the darkness by bringing in the LIGHT?