OK…
Typically, I try and mention about five different things that are going on within the media on a weekly basis. However, after following the story on the gone-too-soon actor Cory Monteith, I am led to use this opportunity to send out a bit of a heads up for us all.
Although I have only watched about one half of an episode of Glee, I must say that ever since the announcement of Cory’s death, I had been following it a bit. What a young man (31). What a handsome man. And from all of the stories that I had read, he was definitely a young man who was fighting his own demons (shoot, aren’t we all?-Ephesians 6:10-20).
Yet, what caught my attention the most was how there were so many reports of how happy he had appeared to be ever since he recently got out of (substance abuse) rehab; how happy he even seemed the night before he was found in his hotel room only for his toxicology report to say (according to People magazine:
“’At this point there is no evidence to suggest Mr. Monteith’s death was anything other than a most-tragic accident,’ the BC Coroners Service says in a statement released Tuesday.
Police spokesman Constable Brian Montague said, ‘There was evidence in the room that was consistent with a drug overdose.’” (Heroin and alcohol, to be exact.)
As a woman who will be seven years (God willing-LOL) abstinent (of sex) in January, I couldn’t help but to think about my own brand of sobriety. I also couldn’t help but to think about the blaring warning found in Matthew 12:43-46(NKJV):
“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
No matter what our struggle or stronghold may be, sobriety is not something that we can afford to “take a vacation from”, even if it’s just every once in a while. Not because God won’t love us if we do (Jeremiah 31:3). Not because he is not faithful to forgive us every time we make our confessions known (I John 1:9-10). But because steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) and seeking to devour (I Peter 5:8) is the name of Satan’s game.
You see, what Cory’s story taught me is that you can be doing great for weeks…months…years even and that “one time” that you think you can handle could be the main one that takes you out. It’s simply not a gamble worth taking. As Ecclesiastes 7:17 says “Why be foolish? Why die before your time?” Sometimes the death is not the loss of life, but the loss of a relationship or a job or a sense of self. It’s simply not worth it.
It’s such a tragedy to read about Cory’s ending. At least on this side of heaven. But at least from where I sit, he did not die in vain. I took it as my own “Be careful, Shellie” message and I’m praying that I’ll take heed.
Drugs. Alcohol. Porn. Sex. Money. Food. Shopping. You name it.
Sometimes going back just once. Can cost you. Dearly.