Friday
Nov032006
Misery in a Bottle
Friday, November 3, 2006 at 4:33PM
I learned about the effects of alcohol at a very early age. My very first “best friend� and I were inseparable. Ask our moms. We were always together, at my house playing dolls in my room, drinking milkshakes at the drugstore, playing dress up in my grandparent’s attic, on the swing set in our backyard. But I don’t remember her room. I never played there. Her father was an alcoholic and the family suffered many of the consequences you can imagine. It wasn’t until we were older that her mother, a very brave, dear woman managed to make a way of escape for them, that I was able to spend the night with her in her new home.
This week, the effects of alcohol have come back very clearly to all of us. My children are seeing now what I saw as a five year old, the consequences of alcohol. Walk back through our past week with me.
• Bernie and I were on our way home from school. As we rounded the corner by dumpster on the way to our apartment, one of the two men who “live� there was asleep on the curb, totally inebriated. As we got near, he rolled into the street just as an SUV was backing up. We both started yelling (I don’t remember what, but it was probably in English). Bernie ran and banged on the back window just as his torso was mashed between the road and the bumper. The vehicle stopped just before the wheels crushed him completely. He never felt a thing. His friend was in no condition to help him, so some passersby rolled him back off the road into the dirt. He probably doesn’t even know where the bruises he inevitably has came from.
• As we were walking back from the market, two other men, again intoxicated, were fighting in the street, with bloody hands and faces. They were too drunk to care how it looked to those walking by.
• While walking to church, Bernie and Cori saw another man fall into a hole. It was a struggle, for him just to get up. He wet himself in the process.
• Three nights ago, one of the leaders in the Student Church (the one who was supposed to preach this Sunday as a matter of fact), got drunk, broke into the building and took money. He is now awaiting church discipline and will have to find some way to repay the money.
These men all had one thing in common. They all exercised their freedom to drink alcohol. In the end, they pay a high price. It may have cost them their family, their friends, their jobs, their health, their dignity. For one, hopefully not eventually his ministry. I am not going to use this space to debate whether or not Christians should drink. Most people reading it know how we both feel about that and it is not my intent or desire to offend anyone.
I’m not really sure what my intent or desire is for this. Maybe I should ask friends who have been there what they would like to see me do with it. I could ask our former neighbor, David, or our dear friends, Bryan and Chris. These men have all looked this addiction in the face and are daily making the choice to live in freedom from alcohol. By their own testimony, it is the grace of God that has and continues to enable them to make this choice.
I could ask our house helper, Narah, who has won our hearts and is becoming part of the family. She lives every day without her father, who chose alcohol over his family when she was three years old. She has had to learn that God desires to be the Father she never had, and that He will not reject her.
I suppose, I will just use this to beg you to pray. Pray for those you know who have been affected by this and that somehow God would redeem their pain. Pray for the Christians here who have come to Christ from a past of alcohol abuse and that they would be delivered from its power. Pray for healing for their families. Pray for the church that it would know how to extend love and grace and mercy and help in light of this need. Pray for us, that our hearts would not grow dull as we see this every day. Pray that we would be available at any time in any way if God would see fit to use us in the lives of those we walk by. Pray “even so, Lord Jesus, come� because only then will all addictions and all strongholds be abolished. Until then…may we all be found faithful.
This week, the effects of alcohol have come back very clearly to all of us. My children are seeing now what I saw as a five year old, the consequences of alcohol. Walk back through our past week with me.
• Bernie and I were on our way home from school. As we rounded the corner by dumpster on the way to our apartment, one of the two men who “live� there was asleep on the curb, totally inebriated. As we got near, he rolled into the street just as an SUV was backing up. We both started yelling (I don’t remember what, but it was probably in English). Bernie ran and banged on the back window just as his torso was mashed between the road and the bumper. The vehicle stopped just before the wheels crushed him completely. He never felt a thing. His friend was in no condition to help him, so some passersby rolled him back off the road into the dirt. He probably doesn’t even know where the bruises he inevitably has came from.
• As we were walking back from the market, two other men, again intoxicated, were fighting in the street, with bloody hands and faces. They were too drunk to care how it looked to those walking by.
• While walking to church, Bernie and Cori saw another man fall into a hole. It was a struggle, for him just to get up. He wet himself in the process.
• Three nights ago, one of the leaders in the Student Church (the one who was supposed to preach this Sunday as a matter of fact), got drunk, broke into the building and took money. He is now awaiting church discipline and will have to find some way to repay the money.
These men all had one thing in common. They all exercised their freedom to drink alcohol. In the end, they pay a high price. It may have cost them their family, their friends, their jobs, their health, their dignity. For one, hopefully not eventually his ministry. I am not going to use this space to debate whether or not Christians should drink. Most people reading it know how we both feel about that and it is not my intent or desire to offend anyone.
I’m not really sure what my intent or desire is for this. Maybe I should ask friends who have been there what they would like to see me do with it. I could ask our former neighbor, David, or our dear friends, Bryan and Chris. These men have all looked this addiction in the face and are daily making the choice to live in freedom from alcohol. By their own testimony, it is the grace of God that has and continues to enable them to make this choice.
I could ask our house helper, Narah, who has won our hearts and is becoming part of the family. She lives every day without her father, who chose alcohol over his family when she was three years old. She has had to learn that God desires to be the Father she never had, and that He will not reject her.
I suppose, I will just use this to beg you to pray. Pray for those you know who have been affected by this and that somehow God would redeem their pain. Pray for the Christians here who have come to Christ from a past of alcohol abuse and that they would be delivered from its power. Pray for healing for their families. Pray for the church that it would know how to extend love and grace and mercy and help in light of this need. Pray for us, that our hearts would not grow dull as we see this every day. Pray that we would be available at any time in any way if God would see fit to use us in the lives of those we walk by. Pray “even so, Lord Jesus, come� because only then will all addictions and all strongholds be abolished. Until then…may we all be found faithful.
Reader Comments (4)
I am the Bryan from Renee's blog, and I would like to say the main reason I have been sober for four years and three months is because Bernie and Renee supported me when I needed someone the most. They helped me to see that the Lord wanted me sober. Gods help not only got me sober but has helped keep me sober. Bernie told me once that the church can not clean their fish before they catch them, and it made me feel welcome in church. I had always been ashamed and avoided church, Bernie and Renee played a big part in my recovery but so did being welcome in church. I would like to say that if you know someone who is in active addiction don't give up on them, pray for them all the time, God will wait for them and so should the church.
Interestingly enough whether it is the bottle or a pill addiction is hard. One of the ladies in our church just went up to Michigan for Rehab because she got addicted to prescription painkillers. Her son David will be living with Sara and I for at least the next three months, maybe even six months. I preached on Sunday night about pure and faultess religion is taking caring of widows and orphans. In our world today that means taking care of addicts, prostitutes, orphans, widows, etc.
It is my prayer that the church as a whole see these people with addictions not as losers, but as people to be loved. It was amazing to see April come this past Sunday morning for prayer, and the church to lay hands on her and pray, then go get on a bus to go to a Christian rehab center to break the bonds of addiction.
This subject is appropriate for me today.
Last night I had a dream about alcohol and the church.
This morning a coworker voiced his problem with a certain believer's conviction against alcohol because it made him "feel guilty" for enjoying life.
And on a "whim" I checked out this blog.
“Speak, for your servant hears.�
Hey Renee, I am amazed at the timing of this e-mail. I can not go into details, but please know that through this you are truly blessing others. God is so good!!!