People, Places, and Things

What addiction remession can teach us about learning to follow Jesus

Something struck me the other day.

Living in remission from a substance use disorder means paying attention to three familiar words:

People. Places. Things.

You begin examining who you spend time with, where you go, and what fills your life. You start recognizing what pulls you toward the very thing you are trying to leave behind.

Then I thought about what it means to surrender your life to Christ.

The parallel stopped me.

We understand why someone working toward sustained remission might need to change their surroundings. Yet when it comes to following Jesus, how often do we expect transformation while keeping every influence in our lives exactly as it was?

We want a renewed mind. Are we willing to change what we keep feeding it?

The Decision Has to Reach Our Daily Lives

Remission from a substance use disorder reaches beyond the decision to stop using. It means learning how to live without continuing to build life around the patterns someone is trying to leave behind.

That raises a larger question: What needs to change in everyday life to support that new direction?

In my own journey toward sustained remission, I had to examine my habits, my relationships, and what I turned to when life became uncomfortable. Treatment for my mental health, including medication, has also been part of that journey. The change reached well beyond putting down a drink.

There is a parallel here in following Christ. Jesus changes everything about everything.

We surrender. We acknowledge that our way has not led us where we thought it would. We ask the Lord to lead us. Then that surrender begins reaching into the actual details of our lives. Nothing is outside His reach: what we watch, what we say, who we spend time with, where we go, and what we pursue.

That does not mean everything changes overnight or that we suddenly become perfect. But as Christ changes our hearts, that change begins to show in our choices. What once entertained us may begin to trouble us. Words we used without thinking may become words we need to repent of. Approval we once chased may begin to lose its hold.

In Romans 12:2, Paul connects transformation with the renewal of our minds and calls us away from conformity to this world.

That reaches well beyond Sunday morning. It reaches into what we practice Monday through Saturday.

What We Keep Around Us Matters

Think about the parallel.

Someone working toward remission may sincerely want a different life while remaining surrounded by invitations, routines, and influences tied to substance use. Recognizing those influences and changing their relationship with them can be an important part of remission.

Now bring that question into our walk with Christ.

If we want freedom from anger, what are we doing with the content that keeps feeding our outrage?

If we want freedom from comparison, why do we keep measuring our lives against everyone else's possessions and accomplishments?

If we want to surrender our pride, are we willing to spend time with people who will lovingly tell us the truth?

We can become protective of the very influences we need to examine.

It is just entertainment. It is just how my friends talk. It is just business. It is just what everybody does.

But what is it teaching me to love? What is it making easier to excuse?

Galatians 6:7–8 reminds us that what we sow matters, distinguishing between sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit.

What we repeatedly welcome into our lives deserves our attention.

Sanctification Gets Personal

Sanctification is the ongoing work of God making us more like Christ. As the Holy Spirit works in us, we learn to respond through obedience, repentance, and daily surrender.

That gets personal because it touches things we have grown comfortable with.

Ephesians 4:22–24 connects putting off the old self, being renewed in the mind, and putting on the new self.

There is movement in that passage. Something is being put off. Something is being renewed. Something is being put on.

People, places, and things belong in that examination.

People: Who helps me practice honesty, humility, and faithfulness? Who encourages the patterns I am asking God to change? Am I willing to receive correction, or do I only welcome agreement?

Places: Where do I repeatedly compromise? What environments make my old ways feel normal? Where can I build habits of worship, service, and genuine community?

Things: What fills my screen, my schedule, and my thoughts? What am I watching and listening to? How is it showing up in what I say and how I treat others? What do I reach for before I reach for the Lord? What has become so important that I resist letting Him question it?

Sometimes a relationship needs a different boundary. Sometimes a place needs to come out of our routine. Sometimes something needs to leave our lives altogether.

Where people, places, and things keep feeding the old life, our relationship with them has to change.

We cannot honestly offer God every part of ourselves while declaring certain influences off limits to His correction.

Love Still Matters

This requires discernment and humility.

Following Jesus does not require cutting off everyone who believes differently. Jesus moved toward people who needed grace. We are called to love our neighbors, including those who do not share our faith.

But love does not require handing every person equal influence over our lives. Nor does it require participating in everything we are invited into.

Sometimes we can remain present with clear boundaries. Sometimes we need distance. We also need enough humility to recognize when another person's disagreement is helpful correction rather than a threat to our growth.

The examination includes us, too. What kind of influence am I becoming in someone else's life?

Build a Life That Supports the Direction You Are Going

Leaving something behind creates room. What we bring into that room matters.

We need people who will pray with us and tell us the truth. We need time in Scripture. We need routines that give us room to listen, relationships where we can be honest, and opportunities to serve beyond ourselves.

Hebrews 10:24–25 calls believers to gather and encourage one another toward love and good works.

Christian community belongs in this process. Walking with Christ includes learning to walk with others who help us follow Him.

And we need to keep returning. Familiar patterns can still appeal to us. A sincere surrender does not mean every old desire immediately disappears.

In Luke 9:23, Jesus describes following Him in terms of denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily.

Daily. That word matters.

We need Christ in the ordinary decisions, long before those decisions become a crisis. We need to bring our thoughts, our reactions, and our desires before Him again today. 

What Are We Willing to Change?

The journeys are not identical. Substance use disorders are complex, and a return to use should never be treated as proof that someone lacked faith. Treatment and ongoing support have a place in recovery.

But the parallel asks a question worth sitting with.

Why can we recognize the importance of changing influences in recovery, yet resist examining those same areas when we say we want to follow Christ?

Grace is a gift. We do not earn it by improving our surroundings. And a different circle of friends cannot do the inward work of the Holy Spirit.

But Titus 2:11–12 describes grace as teaching us to turn away from ungodliness and worldly passions and to live differently in the present age.

The grace that meets us also teaches us how to live.

Jesus changes everything about everything. That includes the parts of life we have treated as too ordinary to bring before Him. Following Him will show in what we watch, how we speak, who we allow to shape us, and where we choose to go. These changes grow out of a heart being transformed by Him.

People. Places. Things.

Who is shaping us? Where are we placing ourselves? What are we feeding?

Are we arranging our lives around who Christ is teaching us to become—or continuing to make room for the patterns He is calling us to leave?

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