LK 21:34 "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.

I used to be in the Air Force and I lived next to a very busy flight-line and worked the late shift. Airplanes were always taking off and landing during the daytime when I was trying to sleep, so I had to wear earplugs in order to get any rest. When you wear earplugs you really become detached from everything that is going on around you on the outside, and you kind of get "cocooned" inside your own little world until you pull them back out. The problem is, that you can't hear much of anything going on around you including any fire alarms, people knocking at your door, or phone calls, so even though it's quiet and peaceful in your earplug world, all hell could be breaking loose and you wouldn't even know about it until much later.

1SA 25:37 Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.

Addiction is just like emotional earplugs where you feel isolated and buffered from all the turmoil of the outside world, but there could be a lot of really bad things happening in your life that need to be dealt with and managed, while you're living in your silent addiction world. The problems outside seem to mount up more and more until they start to jab and scream at us to come back to the real world and deal with the mess that is piling up all around us. Life becomes unmanageable with an addiction because we are not there to manage any of it. Rather than taking our emotional earplugs out, we just throw more of our addiction at our problems and hope they will go away. Or even if they don't go away, at least we won't care.

REV 9:6 During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

1PE 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

We are entering a time in history where many people are going to want to check out of normal life because the problems, troubles, and pressures will just become too great. Many people will turn to addiction in order to escape all the turmoil that is happening around them. Some people will even decide to check out for good through suicide, which just puts you in a worse position and place. God needs us alert in order for us to survive the bad things that may be coming. We must face our unhealed emotional pain rather than try to just block it all out with addiction. Our lives and problems can be managed once again with God's help, and a willingness on our part to cooperate. So allow God to help you face life "earplug free" now.

RO 13:11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.