Last week a friend of mine sat me down and made me watch the last ten minutes of Dr. Oz’s TV show. It was an intervention of sorts.

During that segment, Dr. Oz was discussing how some folks are addicted to lip balm and he was highlighting the kinds of damage you do to your lips when you constantly coat them with a moistener.

My friend knows that I always carry a lip balm in my pocket, an extra in my brief case, one in my back-pack, one in the car and have several strategically placed around the house. If I cannot find one, I will likely stop at a gas station or pharmacy and buy one for the day. It is a compulsive thing.

According to Psychology Today, an addiction “is a condition that results when a person ingests (or uses) a substance or engages in an activity that can be pleasurable but the continued use of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary life…”

So by definition, I guess I have an addiction.

Obviously, a lip balm addiction pales in comparison to folks who genuinely struggle with substance abuses, compulsive gambling and the like. But the bottom line is, you and I need to have control over what we are doing, taking or using. Things should not control us; we need to control our choices.

The apostle Paul was addressing that issue in Romans 6 (vs. 16): “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone (or something) as obedient slaves, you are slave of the one you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness.”

This week, you and I ought to be careful about what controls or compulsively interferes with our daily lives. We ought to declare that “everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial…. I will not be mastered by anything.” (I Cor. 6:12)

Does anyone know of a support group for lip balm users?