SCARED
OFF OF CHEWING TOBACCO

Topics: Appetites; Behavior; Change; Consequences; Desires; Fear; Growth; Habits; Motivation; New Life; Repentance; Spiritual Direction; Temptation

References: Genesis 4:7; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 12:1

Several years ago, I chewed long-cut Wintergreen Skoal. I know, I know. It causes cancer of the mouth and is bad for your heart and your breath, and girls are never going to want to kiss you if you chew that stuff. I knew all that for years, yet I couldn’t kick the habit—mainly because I didn’t want to. The tobacco gave me a little buzz and helped me relax.

I tried to stop. I went to websites and looked up statistics about the health risks of chewing tobacco. I printed the statistics and placed them on my desk where I could read them when I was tempted. But it didn’t help. I still bought a can of the stuff every other time I gassed up my car. This went on for at least a year, until …

I was listening to the radio one afternoon, when a voice came on, very distorted and troubled. The man sounded as though part of his face were missing—low and muffled and slobbery. Between songs, the radio station had inserted a commercial, a public service message about the danger of using chewing tobacco. The man in the commercial said half his jaw had been removed, he had no lower lip, and his face was deformed because for years he had used smokeless tobacco. He didn’t list any facts; he didn’t speak of any harmful ingredients; he didn’t say he was going to die of cancer. Yet the image of a man without a chin speaking into the microphone was enough to convince me to stop. I never used the stuff again.

—Donald Miller, Searching for God Knows What (Nelson, 2004)