Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, July 31, 2022
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God invites us to cultivate healthy living as a gift from God.
A text like today’s runs the risk of suggesting that a Christian life is a more difficult life, fulfilled only with self-restraint and deprivation. But if you speak with anyone who has recovered from addictions including alcohol, sex, or gambling, this text lands quite differently.
God’s words do not intend to make our lives more difficult, but less. There is nothing easy about battling addiction (or even, for that matter, simply living with the consequences of licentiousness, passions, or drunkenness). Immersing oneself (in addiction or overuse) in these things does not and cannot lead to fulfillment. It can temporarily satisfy an itch. But the consequences of all of these will inevitably make life harder.
Addictions and overuse can lead to multiple health problems including liver disease, weakened heart, cancer, stroke, depression, brain damage, and so much more. They can lead to relational problems including infidelity, domestic violence, and divorce. They can lead to financial problems including money spent to fight DUI’s, treatment centers, and the losses that come with gambling addiction. They can lead to problems including self-doubt, loss of self-worth, isolation, despair, depression, and dissociation. And to make matters worse, these illnesses are contagious—those around you begin to suffer physical, emotional, financial, and self-esteem issues, too.
So, does any of that sound appealing? I thought not. No good can come of indulging or overindulging in the things of the flesh.
God invites us to step away from the dangerous behaviors and learn to cultivate healthy ones. The absence of these behaviors isn’t deprivation—it is the spiritual nurturing of the blessings that come from living with health, integrity, selflessness, faith, and love.