It is about 7:45 a.m. Having dropped off my child to school I am heading to the office. But I need to get some gas. So I pull into a local gas station and food mart. I enter to pay. Inside there are other people who are also getting their day started.
There is an expectant young mother in front of me, getting some breakfast. Another man is sitting at one of the tables by the window drinking some coffee. Still another man comes in to get a diet drink and a sausage biscuit. It seems like a typical morning, a regular day.
Suddenly, a very specific smell comes over the store . Then I carefully glance behind me and there he is. He has already been drinking. It is obvious. But he has to come in and get another bottle. He doesn't come in to buy anything else. This is all he wants, and he looks like a man who is desperately trying to get where he is going. The anticipation of his next drink is too powerful for him to hide.
This man is about 50 years old. He looks like any man you would meet and be friends with. When he leaves he does not depart by automobile. But he leaves on a old, worn out, pink bicycle. Why? I imagine he has been charged with a DUI. Or perhaps his habit has ruined him financially. He is obviously not on his way to work, or at least I hope not. But the picture is pitiful. It is a very sad sight to see.
I have heard many a debate about alcohol and the Bible over the years. Was the wine fermented? What about Jesus' first miracle? What if you only drink one glass at home before bedtime? Many more questions have been proposed to attempt to justify drinking. But let me tell you what alcohol really does...
It makes a wise man a fool. It destroys families and marriages. It leads to killing with a motorized vehicle. It manifests itself in college kids waking up in a park or a place they do not know rather than their own beds. It is a sure road to regret. It causes a middle-aged man to go to a quick mart at 7:45 am because he cannot stand it any longer before he has another drink!
Stay away from alcohol. Evil companionships corrupt good morals.
"Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise." ~
Proverbs 20:1
Proverbs 20:1
Great post!! It is so sad to even have to think about that...
ReplyDeleteGood article, hon! I'm sad for that man but proud of you for standing for the truth with love and compassion in your heart.
ReplyDeleteJeremiah, it's me again, Julie Gillen, Emmy Hickman Gobble's and Erin Sisk's and Sam Hickman's Aunt Ju-Ju! Before I go on, I just have to say that I am so proud of Erin and Emmy and Sam and all that they have achieved in their lives thus far. And I have to add that I have recently become a GRANDMOTHER! Before you delete, please check out my own blog: http://juliegillenblog.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteAs a Christian and a fellow writer and as a fellow American who believes in the upside of The First Amendment, I welcome your viewpoint, even if it differs from my own. And as a blogger, I respect your right to block those messages that you do not want to be viewed by others. In my case, I block messages that hint of threat or libel (PETA threatened to kill me), but I do not block messages that challenge my own viewpoints, because I believe it one of my duties as a Christian is to honestly evaluate my own veiwpoints and flaws and misperceptions. First of all, do you truly know the story of the man on the pink bicycle? And second of all, I have to ponder all the other good you could have been doing at that particular point in time. You could have been working in a soup kitchen, or helping a homeless soul, or you could have befriended the man on the pink bicycle and asked him, with love in your heart, what you could have done to help him.
These are just my thoughts, Brother Jeremiah. I do not know you and it is not my place to judge the purity of your heart. But it is my place to say that none of us should get too smug in this life. Best to you and yours, Julie Gillen
Blog: http://juliegillenblog.blogspot.com/