Me: What do you mean the poor thing, he's drunk!
My former husband and I were in the pub we frequented with a bunch of Scottish people. While standing elbow to elbow, a man seated on a barstool just in front of us, falls over and off, stone cold drunk. Brenda had sympathy for him and expressed it, I had a differing opinion and vocalized my observation. She saw him as a "poor thing", I saw him as pathetic and embarrassing, having gotten himself into such a state of inebriation that he lost bodily control, publicly displaying his inclination to drunken stupor. He was over served, and as far as I can tell, he overpaid, looking the fool in front of many, by being disabled and disassociated.
Brenda believed in inebriation and the right to drink too much, and often. She pitied the fallen man not because his soul was in peril, but simply because his body had failed him after abusing it with too much alcohol. I pitied him too, because at the rate he was going, the grave would soon call his ticket number, and he would be none the wiser, falling headlong there without legs, or bar stools, to hold him up.
I don't make excuses for lies, or liars. I call them out when I see them. You might wonder if I am self-deluded, if I think I am holier than thou, holier than Brenda that night in the pub. Nope, I am not. I have lied, and paid the price for it. I have been inebriated and made a public fool of myself... those were the days, my friend, that were disgusting and reprehensible to me, and to my Father in heaven. I would suffer the consequences of my choices with my conscience twisting me in knots of regret and remorse. It didn't feel good to come to terms with my sins, in fact, it felt like I was in a massive meat grinder, hamburger helper me! When we sin, no matter how we try to shield our eyes, God sees all. The way out of self-delusion is to be honest, admit to faulty thoughts and ways, and resolve, with the strength of God, to live according to his wise precepts.
I ask you, have you defended a liar? And, did that liar resemble anyone you know... someone just like you?
When people protect the wayward, there is something in them that they do not want to face, or change. People like their sin, they wallow in it as though it is fragrant and o so satisfying. Brenda came from a family of drunks, and way back when, when I was a new bride and I spent time with drunkards, sometimes I would join them in their revelling. It was fun, until the next day, of course. For the regular drunks, those whose bodies were accustomed to much alcohol, functioning the next day wasn't an issue. They could go to work, laugh, and consider doing it all over again without a care in the world. Not so for me... my guilt held me hostage, and I would plead with God for forgiveness, say I deserved to suffer, and could he please make me feel better anyway?
That was a long time ago, dear reader, thank God. The company we keep influences our thoughts and actions, and nothing is more repulsive to me than alcoholics or drug addicts. I see them as selfishly indulgent, and they know not, nor are they inclined to acknowledge, the pain inflicted on those around them that see their lostness, and cannot retrieve them from the brink of disaster and destruction.
Souls need a savin'. It does not bode well to protect liars. When we do, we are clearly inclined to lying to ourselves, because each human has the capacity to speak and live truth, we are accountable to God and man, so making something okay that goes against God's commands, is a form of deception:
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21)
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