Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew ll:28-30).
About a year ago our local phone company plowed in fiber-optic cable to all its land-line customers. Finally, this year, a three-man crew came and actually connected that cable to our houses and places of businesses. Two days ago was the day for our house. Though the performance of the phones and Internet is very good, it is not a huge "day and night" difference from the old copper wire.
I had an opportunity to carry on a conversation with one of the guys. I asked him where he was from and what he liked to do. He said that he worked hard during the week, but when the week end came, he liked to simply relax and drink. I really should have gone into my counselor mode because there were a couple of "red flags" that went up. One, that he did not want to be bothered on the weekends so he could drink; two, there were other activities he liked to do at one time, fishing and working on his car, but now he would rather relax and drink. These are classic signals that he is self-medicating anxiety and depression. He is dependent on alcohol--his problems will get worse rather than better.
The yoke of Jesus is a whole lot easier than the yoke of the world; he needs Jesus. I think I failed the guy by not talking about his faith in alcohol and not talking to him about faith in Christ. When one has faith in Christ, he doesn't have to live up to the expectations of the world, but only up to the love of Christ. Alcohol, and other psychotropics, will make your problems worse, but the yoke of Christ will bring rest and healing to your soul!
Our Father's Love,
Tom
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment