For anyone who knows me, alcohol just never passes these lips. There are a hundred reasons I could go on about why but I have no need to bore you with my own convictions today. Let’s just suffice to say that because this is true there are several funny stories about moments (I think there are three) that it slipped pass. The first was celebrating an anniversary in a very fancy restaurant. When it came time for dessert they brought us a “House Special” which I couldn’t get enough of and went on and on about! My husband laughed the whole way home as I was not quite myself. The dessert had liquor poured over the top. The second time I had decided that perhaps a wine cooler would be ok for one night and went and bought some to pack for our overnight trip. Again I really liked it, but ended up being sick half the night. Once again my husband was laughing because what I bought was not wine coolers but some kind of beer. That has been some years back. Last week I simply could not refuse to participate in a champagne toast offered at my daughter’s new office as we celebrated her passing the bar! The rest of the day I was a bit tipsy! No one really believes that is possible, but they don’t live in my body!

I am thinking about this because I have more than 3 stories where I have been so happy in the Lord and the presence of The Holy Spirit that people have considered me drunk. A friend and I almost didn’t make it back to our hotel after a wonderful meeting with the Lord at a conference and I am sure anyone who saw us definitely thought we were plastered! It is so sad to me that in general people don’t think Christians are fun or enjoy life when the truth is the joy of the Lord brings the best buzz of the universe! It’s the rules and expectations that scare us away. Sometimes I slip into that thinking too. Yesterday I was reading John 6 around verse 40 in The Message Bible: “This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life”. I was curious about the word align so I looked it up in the dictionary. It means to arrange in a straight line. I am creative-messy-flexible-a free spirit- there was no hope for the likes of me! Someone somewhere had taught me that verse meant I had to be perfectly like Jesus- I had to do it- I had to make it happen and I have never been successful! So then I looked up straight (as an adjective): extending uniformly in one direction without bends or irregularities. Completely hopeless now I looked down and saw the definition again- straight (as a verb): to make straight. What great news! I cannot be the adjective, but Jesus is the verb- forever with me correcting my bends and irregularities so that I am able to stay aligned with Him.