Articles
A Tragic Lesson
Several years ago there was a high school football player whose best friend was killed in a car accident. The football player struggled with this for a long time. He blamed himself at first. After all, he was supposed to be driving his friend that day and maybe the accident wouldn’t have happened at all if he’d been there for him. That led to a heavy burden of guilt, even though the football player had been legitimately sick. It wasn’t his fault in any way, but that is easier to say than to feel when put through a situation like that.
Eventually, the football player turned his grief into motivation. He dedicated his life to honoring his deceased friend. He trained harder than ever and was good enough to become a college football player and then even made the NFL. With every touchdown, when every fan and tv was focused on him, the player would hold up his fingers in a public salute to his friend.
It was a touching story, and if it stopped there, I would gladly share the player’s name rather than referring to him vaguely. But this isn’t the end and it isn’t a happy story at all.
One night, this young man got drunk and then drove his sports car through a city going in excess of 150 mph. He rear-ended another car and killed an innocent young woman. Besides ending a life and a career and losing his own freedom, this foolish act undermined everything the football player had stood for. Once he had honored the victim of an accident. Now, he had caused an accident and created a new victim. He had taken a life. What good were public displays of honor then? Everything that had motivated him now meant nothing. The guilt he once felt inappropriately now had become his burden to bear for the rest of his life.
Do we need any additional reminders about the horrors of alcohol and the number of lives ruined by it? All of my life I have heard of stories like this and seen warnings against drunk driving plastered everywhere. Still, people do not listen.
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise” (Prov. 20:1). Wine makes a mockery of our lives and our goals. It makes a mockery of our character and our religion. It can quickly destroy everything for us and for those around us.
The world tells us to drink responsibly. How does one do that if the very act of drinking impairs our ability to be responsible?
