I begged Jesus to turn this wine back into water, but my prayers went unanswered.
You have heard the story before. You know how it goes. Once upon a time, a sad and lonely agnostic boy from a broken and abusive home turned to drinking and drugging to comfort his heart and mind. And then on his 19th birthday, with a belly full of booze and a brain full of chemicals, God spoke to him: “If you keep doing this, you are going to die. If you follow me, you will live.” Miraculously, he quit partying, became a committed Christian, and within a short amount of time, a Youth Minister (obviously).
At no point in this transformation did I think that I had an addiction, disease, or allergy to alcohol that compelled me to drink. Rather, the real problem was that I was spiritually dead and needed a Savior. I stopped drinking because a spiritual transformation had been accomplished by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was not one of those self-righteous straightedge kids who showed up at the hardcore shows with a freshly scrawled X on his hands to flaunt his inner strength and determination to remain out of step with the world by avoiding the crutches of drugs and alcohol. I was the humble Christian kid with infused righteousness who showed up at the hardcore shows with an oversized ><> sharpied on his hands to proclaim his dependence on the Savior and commitment to following him. And I was now extra-friendly in the pit, even to (most of) the tough guys.
I wasn’t counting the length of time I had been sober; I was counting the length of time I had been a Christian…………..