When we have a back-ache or a tooth-ache, most of us usually just take pain-relieving pills and go on with life. This practice has gotten to a rather dangerous level these days, when people take more than they need and more often than they really need it. As a child, I watched my grandmother suffering through the earlier stages of liver cirrhosis, the disease that eventually claimed her life just over a year ago, after a very long and painful battle. She had this disease for many reasons, but one of the more significant ones was taking too much aspirin and other over-the-counter drugs. Needless to say, my own pain-reliever intake is in extreme moderation.

The concept behind this over-use of non-prescription medications (and the also common abuse of prescription medications), though, is treating the problem instead of the symptom. This is a practice excessivly common in the medical industry today, where doctors would rather write out prescriptions than find out what's wrong, and where women in labor are given extremely powerful anesthetics instead of being taught the proper birthing position. (On that note, why is midwifery not entirely legal? Please call your state representatives in support of midwifery bills!)

We, in the human race, treat the symptom instead of the problem very often in other areas as well.

I, myself, turn to easy answers and fake solutions at least a few times a day. It's much easier, for example, to eat sugar when I get dizzy than to find out why I'm getting dizzy so often. Likewise, it is much easier for me to drive distances to see friends or meet people, or to complain to my roommate about my lack of social life here in town, than it is to actually get to the root of the problem and figure out why I haven't yet found complete satisfaction in the Love of God, and why I'm so upset about loneliness.

(Tangent: my social life is, perhaps, getting somewhat better as far as that goes. I've had some recent times of actually hanging out with people, and -- more importantly -- I've become more content with the state of my social life. I've been growing a lot in my relationship with God and am a lot less lonely at home. I don't so much dread the weekends I've nothing to do anymore, nor do I so much wonder why even now that I have a car and a bit of spending money, I still don't often get to hang out with people that once told me the biggest difficulty in inviting me to hang out was always having to pick me up and pay for my part of the evening's expenses... That was something I struggled with for a long while, but it doesn't matter so much anymore. My priorities have changed, my contentment level has changed, my ability to receive God's love and be satisfied has changed. This is good. We now return you to the regularly scheduled blog entry.)

This pursuit of treating the symptom instead of the problem is why girls feel like they have to leep with guys in order to feel loved, and it is why parents think that punishing their children without talking to them about what they've done and why will actually keep children out of trouble. It is why addictions are so common and why getting rid of addictions is so hard. It is why "the American Dream", as most often defined, is seen as something to pursue instead of just a bonus if things happen to go that way in our pursuit of God's glory. It is why money is the god in America.

People tell their children that money can't buy happiness, and then work so much they never spend time with their children.

What's the deal?

I issue this challenge to each of you, friends: Seek out the problems in your own lives -- feelings of insificance, inferiority, hurt, victimization, etc .. These are the roots of all negativity, addictions, and particularly strong temptations, among other symptoms. Recognizing symptoms will help you find the problems, but it is the problems that need treatment. So find the problems, and work on them.

My blog entry a while back (referenced above) about friendship loneliness was an early attempt for me at doing this. I will continue to seek and destroy problems with my own character for the rest of my life. Both of the devotional books I'm using right now, in fact, are focused on becoming more like Christ through His power to treat our problems and His grace to forgive us of our symptoms. (One book is a weekly study for my house church/small group/cell group meetings, and one is a 5-days-a-week study for my discipleship/mentor meetings.)

Please let Christ treat your problems and forgive your symptoms, friends. I'll keep you updated about my own journey.