Unwelcome Guest

Imagine Super Bowl 2015 with me for a moment.  What will that night look like for you and your family? Now imagine this…A few friends get together for a party.  Several hours into the evening, everyone is having fun cheering for their teams and ragging one another about the score.  Now enters a screaming, but seemingly silent murderer in the room.  He is disguised as the spirit of any good party.  He can be bottled or canned, straight from the cooler or over the rocks.  For most his disguise is welcomed as an innocent friend so everyone looks the other way. Some will taste his poison for the first time and deny their own senses in favor of the pressure in the room and among peers to laugh, raise their glass and join the majority.  Tastes Good!! In this gathering imagine that there are people from all walks: experienced, novices, pagans, Christians, first-timers, adults, youth, male, female, family, strangers, repeat offenders and law-abiders.  Now, let’s stop imagining and go back to Super Bowl '13. 

I received a letter from Kirkland Correctional Institute that year.  It was from James.  He attended a Super Bowl Party with friends just two months after graduating from USC.  He is from a good home and had never been in trouble with the law, but after a few drinks, he and a friend drove home. His friend is now dead, and James is serving time for his death, having been found guilty of felony DUI.  He was one mile from his home.  We can be so blind to avoidable circumstances.  We as parents often freeze in passivity when God has given us complete authority to guide our children in the right direction.  I would guess that there were many exits along James’ evening that could have helped avoid all of the sad outcomes of Super Bowl Sunday 2013 for his family and his friend’s family.  How many of us need to really step it up in our responsibilities to God and one another?