Drive By Dieting

Last week I was driving by a serene country estate on a rural road and saw a sight that I won't easily forget. On the side of the road, in a peaceful pasture, I can only describe it as a buzzard buffet of sorts. A group of vultures were feasting on what must have been for them the highlight of some of their lives. The sun was shining, the temperature was mild for a winter day, and the carcass of the whitetail deer on the menu was fast disappearing, all the way down to the white tail! Life was good for the buzzards in that community. All was right in their world. I can only imagine what it was like in the buzzard roost that night. Some of the talk (if buzzards really do talk) was probably about their good fortune. Who would have thought that fate would have dealt them such a kind hand? I wonder if there was a plan hatched that night in the buzzard roost about how to meet at that same spot next year and celebrate, perhaps building a memorial and creating a tradition to remember their provision. They could call it Dead Meat Day or something.
More important to me is not what may or may not be in the mind of a buzzard, but what may lurk in the mind of a man. I am interested in what may be lurking in the mind of a particular man, my mind to be more specific. There was a time I was hanging out with some of my buzzard buddies, thinking all was right in the world, basking in the sun and picking the bones of some skeletal dead thing, believing that I was dealt a kind hand by Fate or some non-specific, non-personal, non-living entity. For me it was the desire to delight myself in the practice of imbibing alcoholic beverages, believing that all was right in my world. I was a living dead man, dead meat, so to speak. I was self deceived and deluded in my worldview and believed that this lifestyle was what some folks called the "high life". In reality I was a "low life."
Often we think of drunkards these days as something other than drunkards. We can believe that they are genetically predisposed to their addiction, or their environment is the cause of their condition. Bottom line, their socio-economic status or their exposure to a parent who was an out-of-control addict can be influential, to be sure. But it is never determinative. I learned that when I was a drunkard, I was worshipping a dead god. And the dead god was me. I brought my sacrifices in the form of money and time and family and offered them at the altar of pleasure. I was out to serve myself. I wanted what I wanted, so I practiced what I practiced. We make it a habit to do what we do because we want what we want. I made choices to feast on dead things that only produce death. Isn't it amazing how a drunkard is described at parties as the "life of the party"? If the drunkard goes to enough parties and continues to believe that this is life, he or she can wind up being like the deer that the buzzards are feeding upon, or at the least one of the buzzards that are eating dead things. Do not be mocked or deceived by your inward desires. Only fools feast on death...and believe it leads to life.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1)
Take care and be wise so that you will not become the main course on some buzzard buffet. Life is a terrible thing to waste.
Blessings to you,
Sam