Rethinking holiday drinking

I was warning some of my young employees about drinking too much on New Year’s eve prior to their holiday vacation and they promised me they would behave. I Googled to see how many people lost their lives last New Year’s Eve and read the following: A recent analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics shows that, by the time our country finished ringing in the year 2008 (the latest year for which data are available), 59 people had died in alcohol-related traffic crashes in the 12-hour span between 6:00 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and 5:59 a.m. the next morning. Two weeks later, on the same night of the week, the death toll dropped to 13.

What a complete waste of life. Many more were injured, jailed, or otherwise adversely affected by the revelry associated with ringing in a new year. I wonder how New Year’s eve became a night to drink away the old year and drink in the new???

Well if you have a hangover this morning you can take solace in knowing that millions of others, maybe billions are in the same boat. Me, I feel great. I went deer hunting bright and early this morning and enjoyed the brisk weather and seeing various wildlife. I’m going horseback riding as soon as I finish writing this and after lunch will chow down on some ham, collards, and black eyed peas so my wife can satisfy her pagan hope of having her old wive’s tale come true and receive good luck and money next year and then I will watch a little football with one of my sons and try to hear the announcer over the din of my twin granddaughters who will be singing at the top of their lungs.

My mind is clear and I feel fabulous. I went to bed about 10PM last night and don’t feel like I missed much of anything.

Of course that was not always the case. I used to drink with the best of them and I would be there drinking until the last dog died and every bottle was empty. I generally made an idiot out of myself and too often ended up in a fight. The next day I would lie on the couch watching football games with an ice pack on my head and a bottle of aspirin on the coffee table. The only time I would move would be to run to the bathroom and eating was out of the question.

Hmmm I prefer my life now to then.


Eph. 2:1
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.