Wilalco hol baryou from heaven?

S itting at the dining table a few weeks ago, my young in-law, looking very troubled, asked me why I don’t drink alcohol. She proceeded to describe her deep concern when her husband, just that weekend, had come home for the first time in a drunken stupor, throwing up and doing whatever it is young, drunk, recently married men do. She was so traumatised by the sight she immediately swore off any form of liquor, the occasional glass of champagne she had enjoyed.

Over the course of days, the subject came up at different fora as I interacted with friends of various religious leanings. There were born-again Christians, Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Cross Bearers and Moslems who I saw downing the bubbly. Some took way too much, others, just enough, whatever that might be and in all the justification for why they indulged was a never ending debate of right and wrong. Naturally, the brunt of cynicism is reserved for devout Moslems and Pentecostal Evangelicals who on religious grounds, don’t touch alcohol yet, many it seems, still enjoy a glass or two.

The subject is forever controversial and the ultimate question is where does one spend eternity on account of the actions they take while here on earth. That alcohol itself would bar one from heaven is a judgement call each of us must make ourselves but I am certain that the actions we take while under the influence goes a long way in determining our legacy and subsequently oour place in eternity. Lot, in incentious drunken stupor, slept with his two daughters and spawned two nations that warred and tormented Abraham’s descendants for centuries thereafter. What lies and deeds have we committed while high that we later deeply regretted but could never reverse?

Life is a choice for which eternity is the prize. What’s yours?