Today’s scripture: Galatians 5:16-26 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Jeff Cope):
I grew up around drinkers. My Dad, grandparents, pretty much every adult in my life was a heavy drinker. Not blackout drunk type drinkers, but what you might call high functioning alcoholics. There was never a day gone by when alcohol wasn’t involved.
Drinking is what you did to deal with life. Sad? Drink. Happy? Drink. Indifferent? Drink. No matter the circumstance, alcohol was the answer. Even as a kid, I always thought there was something not quite right about it. As a result, I vowed never to drink like that.
Fast forward several years and that all changed. Like my relatives before me, I, too, had found the “magic elixir” that would fix all of life’s problems. Having been the anxious type, it calmed my nerves and made me feel even keeled, especially in social situations. It even helped me sleep when I had the worries of the world banging around in my head.
Something never felt right about it to me, though. I didn’t like that it wasn’t optional for me to come home after work and not have beer. It had become something of a routine, like brushing my teeth. Several times I decided at the beginning of the day that I wasn’t going to drink that night. As the day rolled on, I would always convince myself that “Ahhh, today’s been really stressful, so maybe I’ll just have a beer.”
Then several years ago I started doing talk therapy. This resulted in a ton of introspection and really got me thinking about how addiction works. I heard something in therapy that stuck with me: Essentially we stop growing as individuals once we start <insert any addiction here>. So if I started drinking at 21 and was now in my 30s, then emotionally I was really a 21 year old. The reason being is that addiction stuffs away all of those emotions that help us grow as individuals. Since I believe our purpose here on this earth is to learn and grow as souls, that statement hit home.
Eventually, I came to realize I needed to stop drinking altogether and I asked God for help. In my 30+ years of life, this was the first time I really committed something to God. Sure, I’d always prayed about situations in the past, but I never really turned them over. This time was different. I did my part by attending meetings, praying, journaling, following several daily devotionals, and even finding a non-alcoholic beverage I enjoyed.
The first few weeks were the roughest but after that the weeks, months, then years melted away. Stopping wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but because of the Lord’s help and guidance it was far from the hardest either.
Thought for the day: “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.