11 March by Violet Njo Dickson-
Sudoku is the craze for crossword and logic-puzzle fans. It can be done by anyone, no need to be good at maths or language. Many people enjoy it and use it as a recreational hobby to exercise their mental faculties. But beware, you could be caught in its clutches…
My friend Pauline and her son Eugene was spending a day with us at our home. She noticed a sudoku book in the toilet and casually mentioned the she was addicted to it a couple of years ago. She was so hooked on it that she couldn’t do her daily chores like cooking or giving attention to Eugene. I loved sudoku too, but I told her that I didn’t have a problem. I was able to do my quiet time, pray, cook and everything else. So we left it at that.
Later that night, as Pauline was going through Henry Wright’s book “A More Excellent Way” to explain to me the various diseases, I told her that I was suffering from severe diarrhoea for more than five months. Normally people would not allow diarrhoea to go on for more than 5 days! I would go to the toilet about 6 to 7 times a day, each time lasting about 30 minutes to one hour. I knew that a change in bowel movements is usually a harbinger of some insidious or major illness. It alarmed my husband too. A couple of times he would find me on the pot as he went out. “I’m going to the post office,” he would say and when he returned, I would still be there. It was really scary so I discussed with it with Pauline. Suddenly it occurred to me that my diarrhoea could be linked to my sudoku addiction.
Before she could say anything more, I began to answer my own question. I realized that each time I went to the toilet, I’d grab the sudoku book. Somehow the toilet compels me and draws me to it. I find it a place where I find comfort to play sudoku, a place where I desire to play sudoku, a place where I find great pleasure to play sudoku. It must have been a revelation from God: the cause of diarrhoea may be my addiction to sudoku!
Immediately I asked Pauline to pray with me. She turned to the section of “the 8 R’s to freedom” of the book and walked me through the steps of recognising, taking responsibility, repenting, renouncing, removing, resisting, rejoicing…
I felt I was set free! I gathered all the sudoku books and tore them in front of her. I had no more desire to play.
But I had to go through a recovery process. Although I believed I was already set free and healed, Satan tried to put doubts into my mind so much so that I began to believe Satan and not God. I began to focus again on my addiction and even felt the symptoms coming back. Although I was free of diarrhoea the first two days, the next two weeks the diarrhoea returned. I only allowed myself to pass motion once in the morning but the rest of the day was a torture. My stomach was bloated, churning, colicky and just bursting. But I resisted, suppressed the urge and held tightly on to my sphincter muscles. It was unimaginably painful and uncomfortable. Many times I broke out in cold sweat.
Each time I felt like this I prayed. I spoke against the urge, rebuked it and claimed God’s healing. This went on for two weeks and finally it stopped.
It is now a few years and I’m totally set free from sudoku nor am I troubled by diarrhoea.
Epilogue: I prayed for a husband and wife who wanted to get rid of their addiction to solitaire. They testify that they are set free and have not done it for over two years.
Violet, a retired nurse from Singapore is now living in Perth, Australia and is active in Kingdom ministry.
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Reference for pictures:
http://thepwnzone.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/sudoku-toilet-paper-geek-product.jpg
http://cdn.designzzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/freedom.jpg
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