December 22, 2021 – Click here to listen
I was conversing with a friend recently who could be defined as a “party animal”. He attends more parties than anyone I know, and in the Christmas season, it is non-stop. I have harped at him concerning his drinking which he seems to do night after night. He claims he has cut back on his drinking, but every few days or so I see him pictured on Facebook at another party with another half-empty glass of wine in his hand. It is so frequent a half-empty wine glass has begun to look like an appendage has grown into his hand.
He goes to all kinds of parties such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, birthday parties, weddings, and of course New Year’s Eve, and whatever other holiday he can find to celebrate. Lately, it has been a plethora of Christmas parties. So, I asked him if he had ever attended a Christmas party where the celebration of the birth of Christ was the theme. Does anyone ever have one of those?
I read recently of a married New York City police lieutenant who went to a “Christmas” party at an Irish Pub where a rookie policewoman performed a lap dance for him that in a word was obscene. When the video was posted, he was demoted to the transit division and the girl is too embarrassed to appear in public. The lieutenant’s wife has cursed out several reporters and the rookie policewoman’s dad is threatening to sue because the lieutenant was her senior officer. Hmmm . . . She appeared to be of consensual age, and I didn’t see anyone force her to perform lewd acts for the crowded bar. Perhaps her upbringing was part of the problem???
Also in the headlines recently was Coach Urban Meyers who similarly had a young girl dancing and rubbing her derriere on him at a bar as he held her hips. He was recently fired as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars for this and other mistakes such as allegedly cursing out his players and coaches and even kicking one of his players. His daughter has declared war on those who criticize him and is standing by her dad. I think I would want my kid to lay low after those examples of behavior became front-page news.
My good friend TK Wetherell and I used to go to Plantation owner parties sometimes. Neither of us drank and we found it amusing to stand near the bar sipping on our Cokes and Ginger Ale watching people begin to drink excessively and get loud and act silly. Soon enough a few of them would begin hitting on each other’s wives. We quickly tired of it and quit going to those parties altogether.
There is nothing wrong with celebrations and drinking moderately I suppose. The problem is that so many cannot seem to drink moderately. I’m one of them. Better to leave it alone than suffer the consequences. Even if you can control it what does it say about setting an example for someone who cannot control it?
I drank for a long period of time in my life. I could control it most of the time, or at least I said I could. I counseled a friend who had a serious drinking problem and after a couple of months felt I was making good progress in leading him out of that abyss. Many years ago, we had a pool party and ran out of beer and wine. I was sent to the store to refuel. I had my shopping cart full of beer and wine and I turned a corner at the supermarket and sure enough there stood the friend I had been counseling for months. He looked at me and then down at the cart and back at me and I could see hypocrite was on his mind. All my well-intentioned counseling went down the drain. Not long after that incident, I gave up drinking alcohol forever and I still regret being a bad example to this poor guy to this very day.
Remember the reason for the season, my friends. Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and not to stumble in front of the weak.
1 Corinthians 8:9
Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.