I like energy drinks like RockStar and Monster. I mean, I REALLY like them. I crave them and am physically reactive to the mere thought of drinking one. To call it an addiction is an understatement. It’s an obsession I’ve fought for years and tried desperately to sever. Ultimately, I give in and have “just one more”.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ~ Romans 8:37

This all despite the growing awareness that the ingredients in energy drinks are harmful to my mind, body and overall well-being – not to mention the damage they can do on a personal budget! Last year, during Lent, I said told myself this is the time to kick the habit. I made it four days before giving in. The shame and guilt that accompanied that first gulp wasn’t enough to make me stop either. Afterwards, I couldn’t help but despise my human condition. Here I was, not able to give up drinking a lousy liquid for a few weeks, and yet Jesus gave his life for me. I am reminded of this passage from Romans for a couple different reasons. A few years ago, my church had invited a guest pastor who gave a sermon on this verse. He talked a lot about how he had been a collector of “stuff”. I could relate. I’ve always collected stuff. He went into detail about how his collections and pursuit of worthy additions to them would consume his every thought. I too could relate. Those pursuits would detract him from serving the one true Master in which we are all called to serve. That day, I gave up collecting many things, and have come to realize more and more that those things are just stuff with no practical purpose. It’s just earthly noise to distract our heart’s desires from God. As Albert Simpson says in “A Larger Christian Life”, to be more than a conqueror:

It means to have a decisive victory. There are some victories that cost nearly as much as defeats, and a few more such triumphs would annihilate us. There are some battles which have to be renewed again and again until we are exhausted with the ceaseless strife.

As Christians, we battle daily. The devil throws every possible trick and tactic to destroy us. What begins as a harmless collection of memorabilia often evolves to a massive repository of stuff that has zero significance in terms of eternity and saving others for God’s kingdom. It detracts from your mission, steals from your income and potentially destroys your family, your job and everything you love. All because you have made your earthly pursuits a more important master than you have God. Does that sound extreme? Not at all. How many people have you seen get enveloped in trivial matters; drugs, affairs, politics, pride, obsessions over stuff, jealousy, revenge, etc. and it ultimately destroyed their lives? Some overcome and rise back up. Most of them do not. When a nation, society, culture – any individual - turns its heart’s pursuits from God, the course ahead is always one that is downward. Beloved, I encourage you to prayerfully and personally examine your life. What “stuff” is depriving you from living abundantly in Christ? For me, I’ve given up much, but it’s not nearly enough. I’ve been a conqueror much, but it’s not nearly enough. Today as I type this, I am more than two months clean and free of the energy drinks that have consumed so much of my personal longing and yet drained my life. I’ve conquered this one. But it’s just one battle where there has been a decisive victory. There are many more areas of life I have yet to conqueror if I am to truly serve the one true God who’s love is without condition and always sufficient.