Thought For The Day
“Smiley TV preachers might tell you that following Jesus is about being good so that God will bless you with cash and prizes, but really it’s much more gruesome and meaningful. It’s about spiritual physics. Something has to die for something new to live.”
- Nadia Bolz-Weber
Something has to die for something new to live....
Very few of you know me from my drinking days. I was a very different person back then. I was opinionated, and not afraid to share my opinions with anyone and everyone. I was loud and in-your-face aggressive. I cursed talking heads on TV and railed against sports officials who, in my mind, treated my team unfairly. I sacrificed small animals, hoping to put a curse on the Ohio State Buckeyes before their annual game with my beloved Michigan Wolverines. OK, not really, but I thought about it. 😃
When I finally reached my end and realized my life was out of my control, I asked God to free me from alcohol. I asked him to fill the hole within me I was trying to fill. I have told some of you what happened next. Within a few days my need for alcohol was completely gone, never to return.
But that’s not the entire story. There is more that I’ve never shared with anyone until now. When God removed my need for alcohol he also excised those traits mentioned above from my personality. God understood that the two conditions were linked somehow. In order to become the person I am now, the parts of my personality that needed alcohol to function had to die.
It’s been almost 27 years since my last drink, a fact for which I am profoundly grateful. But I’ve fundamentally changed, and in doing so I’ve come to understand and appreciate the lyrics of the song “Both Sides Now”:
“But now old friends they're acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day.”
Part of me had to die so that a new me could emerge into the light. Joni Mitchell understood. So does Nadia Bolz-Weber.
