Saying you don’t drink alcohol is a little like saying you’re a virgin: your listeners are a bit surprised — either because it’s true or because you chose to tell them — and (sometimes) want to know more.
For those who want to know more, stick around.
One of my former coworkers, Caleb Hull, took to Twitter over the weekend to tell everyone he was giving up alcohol because it’s “a waste of money, health, has an overall negative effect on decision making, and has no benefits.”
He explained himself a little more:
I’ve never had a real desire to drink or get drunk. It was always just a social thing and a way to make friends.
It’s really stupid looking back and there’s no reason why I can’t just order a water while with friends at the bar.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 2, 2019
I really do appreciate all the people reaching out to me publicly and in DMs about this topic.
It’s really cool to have access to a community of you all to share your honest thoughts.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 2, 2019
I’m a life-long teetotaler. I’m just a few weeks away from turning 27, and I have never tasted a drop of alcohol — and I haven’t once felt like I was missing something. And no one has ever been able to convince me I am.
Drinking is the only thing I’ve ever seen people continue to do until they like it — an acquired taste, I’ve heard it called. Oddly, we don’t really acquire tastes for anything else; if we don’t like it, we just move on.
Why I’m a teetotaler
With a history of alcoholism in my family, drinking was just never on my radar. Growing up, alcohol was never in our home and neither of my parents drink.
Over the years, I’ve seen alcohol do one of two things: Have little to no obvious impact on a family environment, or make it significantly worse. If that’s not enough, drinking alcohol can increase the likelihood of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and depression. That just isn’t worth it to me.
Really, though, I have two other simple reasons for choosing not to drink.
The first reason is that I really don’t want to look like the world around me, just as the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12, “Do not be conformed to this world.” Sure, I could have a drink here or there and it likely wouldn’t be an issue — I have friends who do just that — but I see it as an easy conversation starter, a simple but effective way for people to see there is something different in my life.
The reality is I cannot be sober-minded — like Scripture commands us over and over to be — if I’m not sober. My gospel witness is fragile because my flesh is weak; I’m not willing to test it.
Surrendering my life to God is a moment-by-moment choice that’s hard enough without alcohol. Why make it more difficult?
And the second reason flows from that simple question. Alcohol, like so many of life’s trappings, is just a hindrance waiting to trip me up and potentially mislead those watching me.
In Hebrews 12, the author wrote:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
It’s important to understand that the author wasn’t just talking about sin. The writer made a point of telling believers to cut out sin and “everything that hinders” us. That was intentional.
We live in a culture increasingly dependent on alcohol — its consumption has reached epidemic levels in the U.S. — so it’s nearly impossible to suggest drinking isn’t, at least in some ways, a societal hindrance.
To run life’s race well, the Bible calls me to throw off anything that could slow me down — even if it’s not a sin — because it “so easily entangles,” taking my eyes off Jesus.
Drinking makes blurry a line that’s already narrow. For me, it’s just not worth it.