When I worked for the Sheriff’s Department, I came into contact with intoxicated people all the time. My first few years at the Sheriff’s Department was working in the jail as a booking officer. The booking office was the first stop when an offender entered the jail with the arresting officer. Some of the intoxicated people couldn’t stand and answer questions, and some couldn’t even speak to where you could understand. Those who were extremely intoxicated would either want to fight, sleep, or joke around. I would say that very few intoxicated people became sober even after being arrested, having their possessions taken from them and being closed up in a confined area. Only a handful understood that what was happening was going to cost them and their families severely. Only a handful experienced the sobering effect of being confined with almost all of their privileges immediately taken away from them.
What is happening in our nation and world this moment should have a very sobering effect on each one of us. We all have been arrested by the spread of the coronavirus and confined to our homes. The news of many deaths, the loss of many jobs, the crippling of our economy, and the removal of life as we have always known it, should be very sobering. This sudden change in our lives should be changing something in us spiritually. We should be sobering up and understanding the serious spiritual nature of what is taking place and not just the life-altering implications. God is calling us to the prayer closet and only spiritually sober people will go to their prayer closet and seek God. Those who remain intoxicated will remain the same spiritually. Those who remain intoxicated may still want to joke around or just want to sleep it off until everything goes back to normal assuming that it will. Let me ask you, are you sobering up spiritually? Look at what the apostle Paul said,
“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others [do,] but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and [as] a helmet the hope of salvation.” 1 Thessalonians 5:4-8
Are you of the day or of the night? Be of the day and be sober and put on faith, love and hope. Those who are spiritually sobering up renew their faith and trust in God, love others as Christ has loved us, and hope because we know God is in control!