I embarked on this “love journey” quite serendipitously. I wanted to ease back in to reading my Bible. Nothing heavy. No strict affiliations with a particular group or church. No stringent commitments. Just a light reading with a curious mind about what Jesus might have to say about my life.
It turns out, He seems to have a lot to tell me. And some of it is heavy, man. It’s like asking a friend to tell you what they really think about your new outfit. Don’t ask if you don’t truly want to know. You may find out your ruffle fetish never looked good on you, even when you were twelve.
My ruffle fetish, I’m realizing, is my love for alcohol. It’s such a complex topic, and everyone has a different opinion. I don’t even know what my own stance is. I don’t judge others for abstaining. I don’t judge others for partaking. I do, however, judge myself. Some tangled psycho-analytics from my childhood, I’m sure, is the cause for this self-loathing. But that’s a place I don’t want to visit. I’m only interested in the present. I don’t get drunk; I’m too old for that. I don’t break laws; I hang with responsible peeps and always have a DD. In fact, it’s not what I DO at all. It’s what I THINK.
I read an article recently in which the author described champagne bubbles “dancing the Charleston over [her] tongue” with that first sip. She loved the silky pleasure of slavering over a good wine list, and the feel and comfort of a wine glass in her hand while cooking dinner for a friend. You may not get this, but I do. I get it. Alcohol is not my master, but it is my friend. And if I kick him out of my life, I’ll miss him.
Nonetheless, I feel God speaking to me about it. I don’t believe He cares whether we sip wine with others. But He cares if we are thinking more about what’s in our glasses than what’s in our hearts.
Think of your life as a bucket. If it is filled to the brim with rubble, there’s no room for shiny diamonds.God wants us to think about Him. If we are thinking of something else in an obsessive way, then we are taking our eyes away from Him. It doesn’t have to be alcohol; it could be shopping, or exercising, or building a business. For me, it just happens to be that coveted glass of liquid confidence.
Colossians 3:9-10 talks about putting off the old man [with his ties to carnal living] and putting on the new man. I don’t want my new man to be lugging a bucket of rubble.
I have recently given up drinking, for personal reasons, but I often ask myself is it the liquid in the glass I miss or the feeling you get from holding the glass?
Excellent point. Hmmm… Won’t hurt to try holding a pretty wine glass with sparkling water!