Be Filled
Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:18-20
Being Filled
The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us. So, this is your annual public service announcement about tryptophan overdoses: it is for real. I am not a health care professional nor a nutritionist nor a biologist. I have neither supervised nor participated in any scientific studies. But I do have some real life credentials. Every year for the past 45 years of my adult life, I have stuffed myself to the point of gluttony with turkey and felt the resulting physical crash from the overdose of tryptophan. So, be warned. The struggle is real. In fact, it is so real (and, I suspect, so common) that Paul may well have chosen “being filled with turkey” as his illustration if he were to write his letter to “the church in America” around the Thanksgiving holiday. In his letter to the Ephesians, he spends considerable ink casting a vision of the Spirit-filled life. He employs numerous illustrations and metaphors to make his point, and none more poignant than in Ephesians 5:18-20. Instead of filling yourself with wine, fill yourself with the Holy Spirit (my paraphrase). Had he been writing to us today, might he have said, “Instead of filling yourself with turkey, fill yourself with the Holy Spirit?”
My Privilege
Before you begin flooding the comments with just how privileged I am to be “worried” about eating too much this Thanksgiving when there are so many here in my own community (not to mention around the world) who do not have nearly enough to eat, let me just acknowledge that reality. I am privileged indeed. But my privileges do not end there. My privilege includes having been reared by two parents who love me and who gave me this Thanksgiving tradition. I was privileged to have found the love of my life in high school and to have been faithfully loved by her for more than 40 years. And I am privileged to have fathered some amazing girls who have filled my life with joy. But my biggest privilege of all is that, this week, when our entire family gathers together for the Thanksgiving holiday, every adult will be filled with God’s Spirit as a follower of Christ. That brings me back to Paul’s encouragement to the Ephesians in 5:18-20.
Give Thanks
Paul didn’t end his “be filled with the Spirit” counsel with that illustration. He goes a little further. Since you are filled with the Spirit, you should “give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, if you are so privileged as to be surrounded by Spirit-filled Christ followers this week, then you should absolutely be thankful. And so I am. I am grateful for my entire family. And I am grateful that the Spirit of God indwells them. It is my greatest privilege.