Spiritual Sunday: Jesus Drank, Can I?

A couple of weeks ago, as you know, I got baptized.  Although my life before I got baptized wasn’t completely out of control, I started questioning some  things. One of the things that I questioned was drinking. Now, had slowed waaay down from my college days, but I would call myself a social drinker now-a-days. I am completely fine with going out with friends and only having a single drink, or none at all. I did a little bit of research and found out that Jesus drank (wine), so it makes me wonder can I?

Wait, let me put that disclaimer out there that I am by no means trying to rewrite the bible. This is just my interpretation as a beginner in my walk with Christ. We all know that it takes time to change and baby steps may be in order. This is not my way of trying to twist the words or undermine the importance of living a pure life and heart like Christ.

I recently went out to happy hour with a friend that was moving out of town. We arrived at Bar Louie and immediately my mind went to: should I drink something or shouldn’t I?  I thought about how I just took this important step in my life and already I was back sliding. Heathen. Anyway, we arrived and I glanced through the happy hour list and thought, How about a nice glass of wine. There is nothing wrong with wine; they drank it all the time in the New Testament, right? That is exactly what I had, a glass of wine. I didn’t feel that I was doing it because of peer pressure or get drunk, just a drink of wine instead of an alcohol laden drink that would have me drunk after a couple sips.  I didn’t feel bad after I had my glass of wine. I wasn’t drunk, maybe slightly more relaxed, but nothing major. We even talked about my baptism.

My interpretation, in my mind, is that having a glass of wine isn’t a bad thing. I think that it depends on ones intentions on why they are drinking. The purpose of drinking the wine for me wasn’t to get drunk, but to have a nice time with my friend before she left the state for a new adventure. Getting drunk was never my intention, or hers. It was more like a form of fellowship for us.  By the way, I am not a wine drinker, I just thought that it would be as potent as other drinks because my intentions were not to get drunk.

So for all of my other fellow Christians out there, please do not chop my head off. But instead, give your opinion and enlighten me on how you feel about the topic.