To drink or not to drink?

After a week to simmer down, I have not changed sides. How can beer or any alcohol-laden beverage be helpful to being instruments of righteousness? What, you become more sociable? You become part of the group and so they open up to you? What?

At least for now, I stand by the fact that alcohol can potentially take you to somewhere really dangerous, while a similar amount of water or ice-lemon tea or coke, would simply take me to the loo to empty my bladder. Okay, fine, maybe to the hospital for kidney dialysis too.

If you would down a few bottles of beer in one night, would you have done the same with a few bottles of ice lemon tea? I don't think so, you'd have drunk only one glass of tea.

Okay, so maybe some people can get high on tea, or coca-cola. But that's hardly more physiological than psychological. Alcohol, will do that to you, whether you want it or not. It can chemically alter your mental state.

Fine, so you don't get drunk from a few bottles. Like, what's the big deal, right?
Well, at the very least, please remember that you don't live in a world of your own. I don't believe in saying, who cares what other people think? I'm me. That's crap, because, see, no man is an island, or don't be a stumbling block to others. Whatever, take your pick. I mean, I couldn't care less if you got crazy drunk on your own because, hey, I wouldn't know. But in front of those younger than you, who you are supposed to protect, whose hearts and minds you were supposed to guard? Fixing up images of drinking and having fun? Throwing temptations right into their face? Way to go.

Don't even begin to compromise with consuming alcoholic drinks. Don't even begin to compromise. Because, just like intimate relationships, you will cross the line before you even know it. I'll be specific here, that camp so was not just about relationships; it was about your entire life in Christ, right?

That was the biggest problem actually. Isolated area, no adults (except one who was such a great disappointment), leaders who I don't know what they were thinking (or at all)... I think that was the first time I ever just up-and-go. If I didn't, I might have freaked out really bad.

See, it wasn't so much about the alcohol, but about the attitude. The attitude of wanting to consume it for I-dunno-what reason. The attitude that it is okay. The lack of the attitude of being careful about it. The lack of the attitude of looking out for others.

I know, I know, what about communion, right? Don't we drink a small amount of alcohol in the form of Port every Sunday? Well, I'm no good at arguments, and I admit I'm just heavily biased and led by my heart. But well, all I can say is, tell me how remembering that Christ died for us on the cross, has got to do with leisure consumption of much greater amounts of the spirit. Oh, you know what 'spirit' I'm talking about.

Well, I suppose I haven't simmered down much. Apologies.
I'm not doing much better so I have no right to say this much. Who knows, maybe I'm so bothered because, I feared that it would be me who would drink and cross the line. I face an internal conflict with the discovery of a palatable Red Moscato, during which I also remember feeling extremely embarrassed because I know my face and ears were red. To drink or not to drink? Just one glass? Why not, none?

A whole lotta bull.

May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.

Are we really living with the mind of Christ in us? Are we truly chasing after God's heart? Are our lives really changed?

Are we unconsciously seeking to compromise our behavior? Are we saying "aiya it's okay lah"?
No such thing as 'outside the church', because, like a pastor recently said, we are the church.

Are we guarding the minds and hearts of our young?

On the other hand...
Am I being self-righteous? Am I being legalistic and other -istics?
I'm no better, really.
Yeah, maybe it's just me and my hypocrisy.

But frankly, until we can face those questions with our souls uncovered, don't talk about revival; it'd just be bull. A whole lotta bull.

My dancing mitral valve. ;)

I have been MVP(Mitral Valve Prolapse)-free since 2005, but there is still a mysterious mid-systolic click that nudges at my doctor's worry nerves. Which is why I have been on follow-up for 4 years since.
Well, she finally discharged me, albeit with a low level of worry and an open-date referral letter to a future doctor, in which she referred to me as a 'lovely young lady'. ;)

And, oh, I had a free Echo scan as well. But while I'm glad I didn't need to pay a hundred bucks or more for the scan, I was a tad disappointed that I had to go through the pain. Again. And now I also know that the ordeal's actually longer than usual, because they would be, in doc's words, "desperately searching for the cause of the click". Ouch. Roll and press, roll and press. Ouch.

Well, the click could be from my very cute mitral valve. Why cute? Because it does this fluttering/dancing thing. Watching the screen of the Echo machine, we saw that the valve opens and closes alright, but it also flutters a little. Pretty amazing. For a split second, I entertained the idea that being a Lindy-Hopper gave my mitral valve some dancing character. Hah!

The valve's slightly thickened, but yet not definitive of MVP. And it functions alright by opening and closing properly. Only the slight fluttering. So, no MVP, but yet a clear mid-systolic click.

Anyway, click or no click, there's no apparent problem in my living day to day, as far as I can tell.
So, discharged? YAY.
My mitral valve can continue dancing as much as it wants, but just open and close, open and close.