Living Water

When asked why I don't drink alcohol I have a little trouble answering. If I didn't want to offend anyone I would say that is is a matter of morality and upholding the law. Then I would sound like one of the pharisees of the Bible. I can just imagine myself standing on a soap box on a street corner shouting about morality and upholding the law. Then Jesus would walk up to me and say something witty, completely making me question myself. Are those really good reasons? If I was totally honest with myself I would say no. Of course, if I was a pharisee it wouldn't matter because I would not be able to get past my pride.

Having a relationship with Jesus is like being married or living with your parents. I'm stuck on Donald Miller's words about our relationship with Christ in his book Searching for God Knows What: "he [man] had a relational encounter with God not unlike meeting a friend or a lover or having a father or taking a bride, and that in order to engage God he gave up everything, repented and changed his life, as this sort of extreme sacrifice is what is required if true love is to grow." Giving up drinking for Jesus is not unlike giving up a bad habit for your parents or your spouse because they don't agree with it. They don't condone it because they know it is hurtful to you and they love you. If you love them enough you will sacrifice anything. That's my attitude towards Christ. God loves us enough to give up His son for us. If we'll make sacrifices for our marriages or our families, why not for our God who gave the ultimate sacrifice?

I found myself struggling to answer this question recently. It's not easy to answer. I don't want to condemn anyone who drinks. When I turn 21 I'm sure I'll have an occasional drink. Even when I was in Germany and it was legal for me to drink, I didn't feel right. My parents wouldn't agree with it. That's all it took. I've just realized how much I love my parents and how much that is like loving God.

Then God put me to the test. What would I do to make myself feel accepted? How could I climb the social ladder? I refer to the time after graduation from the time I was, in a sense, reborn as "the drought." I tried to quench my thirst not only with alcohol, but with social acceptance. All I was doing was drowning myself. I was falling away from God. College came and I thought the change would bring about a change in me. I was waiting for something to happen, but I was still in a downward spiral. I finally understood the meaning of the Jesus' words to the woman at the well: "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Then He goes on to say, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (See John 4)." I wondered where God was in my life at the time. Why wasn't He telling me that I was wrong? Why were my footprints the only ones in the sand? Of course, it was then that He carried me. Because of this living water I am saved. When I drank at parties I was always left thirsty for more. I knew what I was doing was wrong. God wasn't thumping me on the head and telling me I was an idiot for a reason. HE WANTED ME TO LEARN. He wanted me to look back and say to myself, God carried me through even when I was weak. He wanted me to grow in His grace. His amazing grace.

So I could stick to the socially accepted answer of morality and please everyone with a simple answer. The truth is, the answer isn't simple. Morality is not the reason I don't drink, although that would be a more culturally acceptable answer. The reason is that I have found something far more powerful than alcohol or social acceptance to quench my thirst. The reason is Jesus and His Living Water.