Thirsty, much?

I love wine.
Really, I do.
Generally, alcohol is just yummy. I was not raised to think of it as off-limits to Christians. I was raised with a serious respect for it's potency, and it's dangers. I was also raised to enjoy, and appreciate it's specialness as a drink.
Sometimes it does some really ugly things to people, and I hate that.
Personally, if I have more than two or three glasses of wine during the course of an evening, I have a hard time sleeping. I fall to sleep fine, to be sure, but I inevitably wake at 3 am. Wide awake, and I can't get back to sleep. It's very irritating. Then I have to to ponder at length, how stupid I was to pour "just one more" glass.
What about those people I know who drink a lot, when they get to drinking? Or drink 'til they're sick? Or drink 'til they injure themselves? Do I have a responsibility to these friends? What is my responsibility, exactly? I see why some Christians stay away from alcohol altogether!

Ephesians 5:18 says "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit."
Dissipation is a funny word. The Greek is a compound word meaning "not" + "safe." It means that drinking too much puts me in danger. Another way to translate that would be "anti" + "salvation." I hardly want to do something that works in opposition to my very salvation!
But there's even more to the word than that. The English word "dissipation" refers to scattering and vanishing. Smoke dissipates, and so does fog. It vanishes into nothingness. Noah Webster says that this refers to "A dissolute, irregular course of life." Hardly becoming of a Christian.

Those among us who are weak do not need to be fortified with Rum. They need to be fortified with truth and grace and prayer. They need the Holy Spirit. When I've had a bad day, I love a glass of wine with a friend. But if I run to a friend for wine, I sure hope she'll turn me to Jesus, with my Shiraz.
Are wine and Jesus mutually exclusive? I think not.
However, I must be diligent to present myself to God as a worker who has no reason to be ashamed. That means that I handle my wine with a certain awareness of the dangers there. Like so many things that we enjoy: food, wine, TV, music, activity, these pleasures can take us where we do not wish to go, unless we moderate our behavior to be fully in submission to the God of Creation.
When we sin, we are not to wallow in the mire.
We are to confess, which means that we agree with God.
We are to repent, which means to turn from our actions.
We are to get to work, doing what we ought to do.

This totally sounds like I got hammered this weekend, as I read over it. Don't worry, I didn't. I could have, though. I am always one decision away from sin.
As are you.