A microbrew on draft for me is equivalent to my wife’s obsession with fountain Coke.

It’s harrrrrd for me to pass up.

As a Christian, it’s always been a fine line between recreational drinking and drinking to get drunk.

Raised as a Southern Baptist, it was always taboo to drink anything.    And you definitely didn’t drink in public.

I can remember playing in a few golf scrambles with Baptists and to drink a beer they would pour it into a styrofoam cup so nobody would know.

I thought that was rather silly, but in the same breath I didn’t drink in front of my father until I was 28 years old.  And that was only because it was my going away party before I was deployed to Iraq.

Even though I was 28 years old, 2 years into my career, recently married and getting ready to deploy to a combat zone, I was still extremely nervous to drink in front of him.

Ironically (and hypocritically), I started the night drinking out of a styrofoam cup.

Drinking With Kids

Although I do drink in front of my kids, I made a vow to myself that they would never see me drunk.  I had one incident where my oldest son did and I felt horrible (I share more of the details in the podcast).

After that incident I vowed that I would never have a repeat of that.

House Party

This past 4th of July we had several friends over to celebrate Independence Day.  I knew I would have some drinks and I looked forward to hanging with good friends and having a good time.

Well, I had such a good time that I passed out before midnight.

Why exactly?  Because I drank.  I drank a lot.  And it wasn’t because I drank beer.

After drinking several beers, I found myself taking swigs straight of of a Jack Daniels bottle.

I don’ t even know whose whiskey it was, but I drank it anyway.  Even worse I became “that guy” at the party that was going up to everyone and soliciting them to take swigs with me.

By 11:00 PM I was so drunk that I could barely talk and ended up passing out in my bed with friends still there.

The next day I was completely hung over and didn’t get out of bed until 4:00 PM.  Mandy had to tell our kids that daddy was sick and that’s why I was still in bed.

Embarrassed Christian

Ephesians 5:18

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

After that night I started doing some serious soul searching.  I was supposed to be this great Christian and yet the only thing that all these people would remember about me…was not my evangelism, but how I was the stupid drunk chugging Jack Daniels.

I was embarrassed.

I was embarrassed for my kids.  I was embarrassed for my wife.  I was embarrassed for Jesus.

The Challenge

I prayed for forgiveness. I prayed for understanding of why I felt that was necessary to get drunk in front of all of our friends.

I needed to prove to myself that I could go out with friends and not need to drink alcohol.

That’s when I approached my wife with the idea which she was immediately all about.

How did the challenge go? Be sure to check out the podcast to find out. 🙂