For Your Benefit...

• As you can see (and hopefully hear) the new audio-visual system is in place. Thanks to CIM who designed and installed it. Thanks to John Norris for his behind-the-scenes work. Thanks to Donnie Gregory for help with wiring. We may have a few more rough spots, but we look forward to the results.
• The July Calendar and Worship Roster will be available this week.
• The new quarter begins one week from today.

Calendar

• June 24-29 — Spearsville Rd (Trafalgar, IN) — VBS.
• June 25-29 — Douglass Hills — VBS.
• July 15-20 — Overland (Lawrenceburg) — VBS.
• July 20 — Taylorsville Rd — Singing.

Last Sunday's Courier Journal carried a lengthy front page article, with pictures, about a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down, and his relationship with his son. Such a human interest story demands reading. In 1993 Philip Brown's son Adam was about to celebrate his 8th birthday. For the first time his birthday fell on Father's Day and dad had planned a gala weekend for his son and himself. It would begin on Friday night with swimming, playing miniature golf, and watching some nearby stock car races. Saturday they planned to work on Adam's playhouse and Sunday they would share an ice cream cake. But the plans came to an abrupt halt almost as soon as they started. While swimming at a neighbor's house Phil dove off the side of the pool and hit his head on the bottom. He broke his neck and was immediately paralyzed.

An unfortunate accident? A stroke of bad luck? Something that happened for no good reason? Yes to the first two questions, no to the third. It turns out that Phil admits his judgment was impaired after having "several" beers before, or during the swimming session. In that brief instant when he dived from the edge of the pool, Phil's life was changed forever. He is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He cannot dress or feed himself, and he requires the services of a live-in caretaker. He was 36 years old when the incident occurred and he has spent the last 14 years battling other complications caused by his paralysis, such as uncontrollable contractions and life threatening infections. The rest of the story, about his relationship with Adam since that fateful night, is tender and touching. But the tragedy was so easily avoidable and the dreadful results so unnecessary. Since then Phil has stressed to Adam the part alcohol played in his own careless behavior, and urged Adam, never to make a similar mistake. Several lessons came to mind when I read the story.

Can anyone think of any benefits that booze has brought to our society? Maybe there is but I cannot think of what it might be. No unprejudiced reader of the Scripture can have any doubt about the sinfulness of drunkenness. Many passages condemn this vice (I Corinthians 6:10; I Thessalonians 5:7; Ephesians 5:19; I Peter 4:3). In spite of emphatic indictments of this sin, and in spite of all the grief and heartache associated with drinking, it is still engaged in by the vast majority of our population. Even most religious people, and many churches see nothing wrong with what is termed social drinking. For the Christian the first consideration about drinking is that it damages our influence with many people to whom we are to be examples.

Aside from the moral implications, good sense should tell any right thinking person that it is a hideous blight on our society. The statistics I have on hand are from the late 1990's but will serve to show the evil that is perpetrated by drinking. In 1998 there were 15,936 alcohol related traffic fatalities. In 1997 there were 2.7 million alcohol related arrest; DUI's, liquor law violations, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, etc. Almost 4 in 10 violent victimizations involved alcohol. I did not have the percentage of spousal and child abuse that are the result of alcohol but it must be at least 80%. I wish my statistics were more up to date but I would state with a great degree of certainty that since then these numbers have not gotten better but worse. The liquor industry has the most hypocritical little saying, "drink responsibly" that I can imagine. How can you put something in your body that immediately begins to affect your judgment and therefore your sense of responsibility, and have the purveyor of that substance tell you to "drink responsibly?" What hypocrisy! No Christian can possibly give endorsement or participate in such a destructive practice that contradicts many of the traits of character that God's word seeks to develop in us.

Another thought that came to my mind from the article is that we humans are our own worst enemies. Not always, but most of the damaging things that happen in our lives are of our own making. Often they are the direct result of ignoring or rebelling against clear principles that God has revealed to us. God's marriage law, for example, is one man for one woman for life (Matthew 19:4-9; Romans 7:1-3). Sexual fidelity is demanded in the marriage relationship yet many enter into adulterous affairs that eventually destroy the home and the family, bringing hurt to all involved. The innocent children are the victims and suffer most when selfish parents put their own pleasure above that of their mate and their off-springs and destroy the home.

Homosexuality is explicitly condemned by God (I Corinthians. 6:9; Romans. 1:26,27) yet it has become completely acceptable by society in the last few years. With it has come the scourge of AIDS, and the ravaging effects of the disease on the body. I have sympathy for anyone who is suffering mightily, but whose fault is it that they are in that condition? People continue to practice this abomination knowing the possible results of such conduct. Like Phil being impaired by a few beers, people's moral compass is ignored and they engage in things that are so ruinous both now and eternally. We have a penchant today of neglecting the discipline of children when God has given us that very basic responsibility (Ephesians 6:4). The undisciplined children, becoming teens and young adults, engage in conduct that often brings untold heart ache and misery on parents. And when the damage is done the parents wring their hands and wonder, "where did we go wrong?" The list could be much longer but this will suffice for now.

We jeopardize our souls when we act without thought as to what is right or wrong and incur inevitable results. Just a "few beers" or just a lapse in good sense and judgment, or disregarding what is right, can engender your life now and bring even much more tragic results in eternity.