“How do I feel this good sober?” is a persistent question
in Pink’s pop hit, “Sober.” I’m drawn to the brutal honesty in this song that
portrays a woman struggling with addiction. She goes from feeling “safe up
high, nothing can touch me” to lamenting her continued dependence on her
substance of choice to feel good. Over
the past few months, I’ve listened to this song over and over, drawn to the
truth and cutting beauty of its words. It reminds me of the frightening power
of my own sin and addictions. We all
have them. For some it is drugs or alcohol. For others sex or pornography. But
for others perhaps it’s building the perfect career. Or having the perfect
family and home. However our idols
manifest themselves, they promise us everything yet in the end leave us with nothing.
The struggle in this song reminds me of Romans 7:15, where the Apostle Paul admits “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” The woman in Pink’s song repeatedly does the very thing she doesn’t want to do. In her struggle, she vacillates from saying being high is “perfection” and the feeling of “no pain,” to crying out “never again” and admitting that she’s “just trying to find a friend.” In exasperation, she says this is “not the way I want my story to end.”
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