Cross Rhythms website editor Heather Bellamy is a regular contributor for the local Sentinel newspaper's weekly faith column, Yours Faithfully. Each week a different leader from the local faith communities write the column. Check out what Heather has been saying to the fine people of North Staffordshire.

The big news for July has obviously been the smoking ban. News which is even more relevant to Stoke-on-Trent with on the spot fines only being cleared this week.
For those who want to give up, The Sentinel reported good news in May. Apparently 'the most effective treatment yet to help smokers quit has been approved for use by the NHS.Champix was cleared after trials showed that almost half of those who took it managed to give up'.

As a reformed smoker I am completely behind this ban. Did you know that secondhand smoke is estimated to increase a non-smoker's risk of getting lung cancer by 24%, and the risk of getting heart disease by 25%?!

Looking beyond the health issues though, smoking is an addiction and often addictions have deeper roots than solely the physical symptoms. An addiction is something you can't break...it has a hold on you and whether it's an addiction to nicotine, class A drugs, food, sex, shopping or peoples approval, addictions have consequences beyond our health and pocket.

If you suffer under the control of an addiction, whatever it is, the likelihood is that underneath the grip of drinking, watching pornography, smoking etc...you are damaged. Your emotions and soul were damaged before the addiction and have been further damaged by the addiction. On top of that you may have felt condemnation, guilt and perhaps even dirty and helpless.

If you're trying to get free of an addiction, it's worth not only searching out the appropriate physical help from doctors, chemists etc, but also emotional help. At Cross Rhythms we work closely with a drug rehab centre called Gilead Foundations. They help rescue hundreds of addicts who are on the edge. They report that many of their students find it harder to give up smoking than even heroin or alcohol. Addictions can have a real grip on us!

For me, when I stopped smoking, it was like ripping a plaster off a wound that wasn't healed yet. Where smoking helped dull emotional pain, stopping using that crutch caused me to be in touch with what I was running away from.

If smoking is something you turn to, to find release from anger, stress, frustration, loneliness and pain, if you can give up that's great, but if you just cover those issues with another addiction you're not really getting free!

To truly find freedom we often need to look beyond the physical symptoms. Although in our western culture we don't often like to look to Jesus or even mention Him, I have found that He is the place where ultimate freedom is found. From Him, I have found help to overcome the physical symptoms of addictions and also freedom from the emotional baggage that was behind them and caused by them.

In Him is found the greatest love any of us will ever know, unconditional love. A murderer in the Bible wrote 'But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'

As you go out to buy your patches and gum, as you phone a helpline or doctor, can I encourage you to also consider Jesus? Simply turn towards Him and pray, tell Him you'd like Him to help you. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Invite Him into your life. It's encountering His love and power in the rawness of our wounds and addictions that heals and truly frees.