Sunday, July 10, 2011

A New Dawn Approaches

It seems like a long ways away now, but I know it will creep up on me sooner than later. In a couple months I will be turning 21 years of age. If you're curious why that would be a big deal, it's a big deal because unlike my more conservative comrades I have no problem with alcohol. The problem is that I see, both at work and with friends, what alcohol does to people and I wonder if I even want to risk being like that. I hate drunks so much that I refuse to recognize them as human beings. They are sub-human degenerates. Let me make this clear: there is nothing cute, funny, or great about being drunk. Followers of the Way should know that drinking to excess is a reprehensible action. God does not condemn alcohol, but there is a clear distinction between acceptable and unacceptable use of it.

Followers of Jesus, don't be deceived! You may see people who are drunk and think they're having a lot of fun, you may even enjoy the kind of personality someone embraces when they're drunk, but it is one massive misrepresentation. Every sin is pleasurable for a season, but understand that the greatest deception is that we think sin is going to burn us like touching a hot stove. Remember that a frog will jump out of boiling water, but if you put it in room temperature water and slowly turn the heat up incrementally the frog will sit in the water and be boiled to death. We are like that frog, some sin that we do causes us to recognize what it is and run from it, but the sin that Satan lures us with is the stuff that boils us slowly. Brothers and sisters, understand that I'm not trying to judge anyone, as I consider myself the chief among unworthy of the Lord's grace, but not only have we been severed from our heritage of death and adopted into the Family of God; we have been given a new lifestyle and a new purpose for our lives. We cannot fulfill that purpose if our minds are in a fog of substances.

I have never had a problem with alcohol, despite my parents' stern messages of the evils of alcohol. My parents don't enjoy alcohol and that's to their benefit. For me, I have tried and enjoyed a small assortment of alcoholic beverages which I have no qualms about drinking. Thing is, I question what the impact will be if I begin drinking when I become of age. Will other followers of the Way discover it and begin to drink without consideration for the limitations? I feel as though I have already misled some of my friends into thinking that because I do not have issues with alcohol itself that I also have little to no problem with drunkenness. I don't know why it is so hard for so many to understand the difference between having a few drinks and getting drunk or why getting drunk is never okay under our New Identity. I accept that people who are not accustomed to drinking can accidentally drink too much and become drunk, but accidental drunkenness does not make it okay. We don't have to gather the town and stone the person to death, but we shouldn't relish the thought of them having drunk to excess.

There are so many questions and so few answers, but if I must I will simply not drink. That is the easiest and simplest way to avoid all the trouble that arises from exercising this small freedom we have been afforded because of Christ.

Thoughts? Feel free to comment here.

James

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