“All these, and many others, have one symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving. This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity. It has never been, by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.” (The Doctor’s Opinion)
Why can’t God remove the physical craving and render us normal drinkers?
Why does God intervene at the level of will?
In a chess game, the moves are governed by the rules of chess but ordained by the decisions of the players.
In life, events are governed by the laws of nature but ordained by the decisions of people.
To ask God to help me play chess is to ask God to help me make better decisions, to effect better plays.
It is not to ask him to allow me to move a bishop from a white square to a black, or for a pawn to execute the move of a knight.
If I acquire a crown, I want to be shown how to earn it. I don’t want one merely to be placed on my head.
I don’t want to be fixed—by an alteration of the laws of physics, by a change in the rules of the games, by a drug that removes my need for agency—I want to be shown the truth, and I want to be shown how to live.