Lampshade night tonight?

Yesterday one of my employees came to me and told me that no one would be working at the plantation today. Incredulous, I asked him what was up with that, and then he reminded me that it was New Years Eve tonight which is a paid holiday for them.

Egad I dislike that holiday. In addition to little sparklers, whistles, toy horns and dunce hats, many parties will have open bars and unlimited drinking tonight as part of their New Year’s Eve packages. In my youth I indulged in a few of those parties and at one I even donned a lampshade for a hat for most of the night. I woke up in the closet of my hotel room passed out still wearing the lampshade. I never did figure out how I got in the closet, or why I didn’t sleep on the bed. That wasn’t as humiliating as one of my buddies who curled up on the dance floor and went to sleep while others danced the night away all around him. We just left him there until we got ready to leave.

I can tell some really comical stories of things I have done and seen others do while drunk, but it isn’t so funny to think of the fatalities and serious injuries that will result from the myriad of alcohol and other drug related car crashes, domestic violence, and craziness that will occur tonight.

Ponder this thought for a moment. People who are alive and well at this very moment will be dead, or suffering mightily from injuries, or be sitting in jail just a few hours from now.

Will you be one of them?

What a sobering thought

I pray that if you are headed out into the night for one of those parties this evening that you will be careful and take a cab home if you drink. I have driven home in a drunken stupor with one hand covering one of my eyes in order to eliminate double vision countless times and gotten away with it. I also had a head on collision and very nearly died and spent months in agony in the hospital and two years on crutches when my luck ran out one night.

Admittedly I’ll be in the minority tonight as I drink a cup of coffee and whisper a prayer for God to watch over all of those souls who will be partying down tonight. Oh but please don’t worry about me being in the minority or missing out on all the fun. Being in the minority usually means that we are within the power of God and not within the “power of the evil one”, and that is where I prefer to be.

Hmmm no headache no nausea no embarrassing remembrance of acting like an idiot no car crash no red eyes no shaking hands no diarrhea no DUI no sin committed when my inhibitions are missing in action no casket for my family to pick out – no victory for satan

I’ll stick with the minority even if the whole world joins in the revelry


1 John 5:19
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one
1 Peter 5:8
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.