There are many things in life I feel inadequate to address. I am making this post in attempt to both help me think through my thoughts as well as seek out any feedback from the blogosphere. So here goes.
Spent yesterday afternoon having an honest conversation with a high school guy who shall remain nameless. His struggle is this…he’s heard all his life that drugs will ruin your life. You’ll be the 40 year old guy, drooling in a chair, living with your mom, playing video games in between shifts at the local burger joint if you do drugs. However, this kid’s brilliant. His friends are brilliant. Like off the charts IQ. He’s been doing a fair amount of drugs and he’s doing great in school. No slippage in grades. No bad family situation. Just a kid who thinks he’s in control.
Now before you think I agree with his antics, I should preface that I don’t. However, I am finding that the typical rationale given to today’s students may not be adequate in dealing with the drug issue. As Christians, as the Church, I feel the need to have a better, more in-depth explanation of the “why’s”. Do you not do drugs because they are illegal? What if our country changed it’s stance on marijuana? Okay for Christians then?
What I keep coming back to is this… The Scriptures say a lot about drunkenness, but not drugs in particular. However, it seems like one could take drunkenness to mean an “altered state of mind”. If that is the working definition then anything that is used to bring about that state is against the Bible. People have wine with dinner (myself included) without having the intention of achieving an altered state of mind. One can have a glass of wine or a beer without being drunk. I don’t think this holds true for other “mind altering substances.” People smoke a joint to get the high. They don’t smoke in the casual, after dinner, wine-sort-of-way…or do they?
I write all of this to say that today’s culture is asking questions about this subject matter and we as the church need to have a deeper more thought out response than we currently do. If our response is equal to the piece of circular rubber in the bottom of the urinal (sorry girl’s, no such fun for you) that reads, “JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS” then we are missing something. We’ve got to have a better response than that. We need a response that deals honestly, intellectually and theologically to the issues at hand.
Any thoughts you have would be most appreciated. Please write your responses while in a non-altered state of mind though. Thanks for your cooperation.
Hard to believe that I'm writing this from Idaho, but after 6 hours in a plane and driving through some serious snow, I now sit by a roaring fire writing this here entry. This place is absolutely beautiful. This is Heather and I's first time out West. Unbelievable. The mountains are breathtaking. While Heather's parents and Kirsten and Brian went into town to get fitted for x-country skiis, Heather and I got to ski (yes, we Floridians have our own x-country skiis) for about 45 minutes. I forgot how much I love skiing. The scenerey is truly spectacular (more pics to come). The most striking thing to me is the absolute silence you experience. It is good for the soul. I'll try and post more about our trip since we got some free wifi here. 
