What an ancient prophet's story about a block of wood reveals about addiction, shame and the way home. We usually talk about compulsive behaviour in one of two ways. Either it is a moral failure, proof of a corrupt heart, or it is a mindless habit, a glitch in the brain's wiring. Both explanations leave us stuck. The first breeds shame; the second breeds resignation. There is a third way to see it, and it comes from an unlikely place: a short, almost humorous passage in the book of Isaiah. Read closely, it suggests that our compulsions are neither random nor mindless. They are acts of worship that have lost their way. One tree, two uses In Isaiah 44, the prophet describes a craftsman who goes into the forest and cuts down a tree. What he does next is the whole point of the story. With the first half of the log, he meets his real needs. He builds a fire. He roasts meat and bakes bread. He warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!" Nothing about thi...
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