Do you think that’s an odd question? I’m not asking if you are drunk at church. I’m asking if you suffer from a condition known as alcohol (an intoxicating beverage) myopia (short-sightedness) while you are at church?
In Wired — An Emptied Flask Makes for Empty Promises, they report on a study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Researchers created a situation where half the people drank alcoholic vodka tonics and the other half drank non-alcoholic vodka tonics. After several drinks, they asked them how committed they were to important personal goals.
Here’s the interesting part about alcohol myopia…
- People who had actually consumed alcohol, were fully willing to commit no matter how unrealistic the goal—but several weeks later—these people had not taken any steps toward achieving their unrealistic personal goals
- People who had not consumed alcohol, but thought they had, were only willing to commit depending on how realistic the goals—and several weeks later—these people had followed through based on how committed they said they were
Which one of these groups describes your experience at church?
- Do you get affected by the emotional worship services, the rah-rah, high, of “feel good” sermons, and make short-sighted personal commitments at church—but then don’t follow through—again and again?
- Do you receive the word with all readiness, and search the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things are so (Acts 17:11) and make real personal commitments between you and God—and follow through with your commitments?
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)
If you are tired of deluding yourself into playing church and would like to meet Christians who are doers of the word, please contact us.