Addiction, Sanctification, and the God Who Heals: Wider Lens with Jonathon M. Seidl
Awesome Marriage Podcast
Dr. Kim Kimberling
4.9 • 802 Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's week two of Wider Lens. This week, Jonathon shares his story of recognizing his addiction, confronting the root causes beneath it, and finding freedom through Christ. From misordered priorities to the hidden struggles many Christians face, this conversation explores recovery, sanctification, and the hope that healing is possible. We are praying that this episode encourages you to reflect, reprioritize and hold tightly to the hope of Jesus!
Episode Highlights:
Understanding addiction as a spectrum allows for earlier intervention and support.
Acknowledging one's addiction is the first step towards healing and transformation.
True recovery requires deep honesty and accountability beyond surface-level admissions.
Embracing those with messy sanctification stories fosters healing and growth.
Identifying and correcting disordered priorities is crucial for recovery.
Quotes from Today's Episode:
Part of what kept me in a disordered relationship with alcohol is what the devil uses "I don't look or act like what I think an alcoholic looks like." - J. Seidl
Radical vulnerability, when you start practicing it, it's contagious and the devil hates it. -J. Seidl
Anything that is misordered is disordered.-J. Seidl
The mommy wine juice culture, mommy needs this to be mommy, right? It's become accepted.-J. Seidl
I finally was able to stop drinking when I stopped trying to stop drinking. When I shot for Jesus, I got sobriety thrown in.-J. Seidl
If you don't get to the root of those, it's just going to be something else. -J. Seidl
Jesus is always going to meet us there. He's not going to let us down.- Dr. Kim
I was ultimately addicted to escapism. -J. Seidl
The muscle memory was forged and formed at a very young age. -J. Seidl
A Wider Lens: Questions for Self Reflection
What habits or priorities in my life might be "good things" that I've elevated above God, and how are they shaping my heart?
Where might I be numbing pain or avoiding deeper heart work instead of bringing it honestly before the Lord?
What step of accountability, surrender, or fellowship could I take this week to move closer to freedom and wholeness in Christ?
Mentioned in this Episode:
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Find Jonathon on Instagram
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Check out his other books.
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Dr. Kim is on Substack. Dr. Kim goes broader than just marriage. You can get wisdom, personal stories, and godly encouragement from him weekly. Sign up today!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The devil wants you to think that you're too dirty for Jesus, right? And you alluded to this earlier. It's like, where did Jesus hang out? Like, he hung out with the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the adulterers and the, you know, all the outcasts. Who were the people that he reserved the harshest words for? So to the woman, brought an adultery, he says, go and sing no more. To the Pharisees, you brew to vipers, right? |
| 0:22.7 | Yeah. |
| 0:23.2 | Like, think about that. |
| 0:24.8 | And so the devil doesn't want you to remember that. |
| 0:27.2 | He wants you to continue to be mired in shame. |
| 0:30.6 | There's a researcher, a social scientist, he named Johan Hari. |
| 0:35.0 | He's this British guy. |
| 0:36.2 | And he talks about how addiction, the heart of addiction, is really disconnection. |
| 0:42.9 | And it resonated with me because if you look at the Bible, I think that's so true. |
| 0:47.8 | What is really the devil trying to do? |
| 0:49.8 | He's trying to disconnect you from your life source. |
| 0:53.4 | Welcome for Wider Lins, a special Fridays in the Fall Segment that allows me to go a from your life source. Welcome to Widerlands, a special Fridays in the |
| 0:55.5 | fall segment that allows me to go as a little wider than marriage and family. This week's guest |
| 0:59.8 | is Jonathan Seidel. He's the author of The New Book, Confessions of a Christian Alcolic. He currently |
| 1:04.4 | runs the popular daily devotional website, The Verges Daily, and his podcast Confessions of a Christian Alcolic. |
| 1:10.9 | Let's go to the studio and welcome John. |
| 1:13.1 | Hey, before we go to today's podcast, I've got a question for you. |
| 1:16.4 | Are money issues destroying your marriage? |
| 1:18.4 | Stop fighting about finances and start building wealth together. |
| 1:22.1 | Take sense to free class the four budgeting mistakes most couples make and how to fix them. |
| 1:27.0 | Biblical, proven system that |
| 1:28.8 | works for couples. Sign up at the link in our show notes. Now let's dive in. Hey, Jonathan, welcome to |
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