Success

So, those of you who know me well know about my 'little' battle with alcohol. Those of you who know my testimony are violently shaking your heads right now.

Working at the Pita Pit as the only Christian is hard. Very rewarding, but hard. It has been a constant struggle for my to find that fine balance between contextualized and pluralistic.

Every year we have two staff parties. A big one at Christmas and a smaller one at the end of the school year. The past two years at the Christmas party I have been drunk off my ass. I won't get into details, but be assured it wasn't pretty OR Christ-like. The past two years I have completely abstained from alcohol at the end of the year party.

This year's challenge: to drink at the Christmas party without getting drunk. In my opinion moderation is the key when being a light at these parties. Being drunk means that I'm just like everyone else. Not drinking at all means I'm weird, on medication or a nerdy Christian. Neither gets us anywhere in the Kingdom mission.

So tonight was the Christmas party. I set goals for myself. One drink at the pre-party cocktails and one drink at the bar. I knew it was going to be hard. I asked people to pray for me. Thank you, huge thank you to those who did. And I had another someone call me on my cell part way through the night to keep me accountable. Thank you to her too. I wore heals 'cause if I was drinking too much then it would be hard to walk, which would signal to me that it was time to stop. I wore my hair all nice, with a smokin' outfit and make-up so that I would have some dignity to maintain. And I didn't bring any money with me.

Hand in hand with God I walked into and out of that party tonight. I met my goal of 2 drinks! I consumed them when I planned and when we switched bars half way through I enjoyed a lovely cranberry juice. I sang a Carole King song at Kareoke which everyone loved. And then I came home..before 4am. In fact before 2am!

Thanks again to those who help and thanks to God for being the norm for awesomeness.