AN OLD IDOL
“We live and drink responsibility because we finally see our lives as sacred.”
There is no question that alcohol has been in the mix of choices that have ended jobs, ended marriages, and ended lives. The overwhelming body of evidence about the ways in which one could ruin their life, and the lives of those they love, could lead one to believe prohibition from alcohol is the only choice that rightly weighs the outcomes.
For some that may be both wise and true. But my view is that what has been fermented and distilled is not the only danger. The danger lies in our human condition and how all too often our interactions become zero sum games. Our response allows no tension to exist and we refuse to hold the gravity of choice.
In the first books of the Bible we find the Ten Commandments. The second of the ten is where we are told not to make any created thing into an idol. And it seems we’ve been experts at breaking that rule since day one. The curiosity of humanity across every culture has found a way to create liquids that both lighten our hearts and deaden our our souls. Maybe the reason our sensibilities react towards the inherent liabilities in libations is because it is such an old idol.
We can all recognize the person who has had “one too many”. It’s blatant idol worship. Words become unfiltered, behavior becomes incredulous, and people become unruly. But maybe any thing, or every thing, that we create can cause the same kind of mayhem in our lives. Maybe the rest of our idols are more presentable, more respectable, and quietly operate in the background of our life. We may have made new idols and we’ve not yet realized the harm we are causing ourselves and others as we unconsciously imbibe them.
The task then is not to remove oneself from all created things, but to orient one’s heart towards what alone should be worshipped. “A greater love must replace a lesser love.” We live and drink responsibly not because we forbid ourselves out of fear. We live and drink responsibility because we finally see our lives as sacred.
Our lives have and hold the weight of glory as the author C.S. Lewis wrote. It is this weight of the beautiful, holy, and sacred that realizes the second commandment is not an argument for prohibition. It is an instruction in kindness to keep our hearts, minds, and livers functioning as they were created to be.
Jared Ray Mackey
