by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
Remember during your trial how surprised you were, not only to see Matt on the stand stoned but at how dumbly he answered the questions put to him? I mentioned afterward not to forget that this is how you are when you use marijuana. I now admit that I was wrong. You’re worse.<\/p>\n
Yes, when we talked on Monday, I knew you were stoned. Thinking back on the things you said left me shaking my head in sadness. My bright young friend is snuffing out his intelligence and he doesn’t see it because the marijuana is making him too stupid to see what is happening to himself. I wonder if you have told yourself the same lies Sarah did, that you are smarter and better when you are high.<\/p>\n
Solomon talked about the effects of both alcohol and alcohol mixed with drugs:<\/p>\n
“Who has woe?
\nWho has sorrow?
\nWho has contentions?
\nWho has complaints?
\nWho has wounds without cause?
\nWho has redness of eyes?<\/em>\nThose who linger long at the wine,
\nThose who go in search of mixed\u00a0<\/em>[drugged]\u00a0wine.<\/em>\nDo not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper.\u00a0<\/em>Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: “They have struck me, but I was not hurt; they have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”<\/em>” (Proverbs 23:29-35).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You ought to see yourself in this passage because it describes you well. I think what grieves me most is that it is no longer a nighttime activity for you. You wake up looking for another hit.<\/p>\n
Oh, the lies you told the day you left. “I’ll try to stay off of marijuana!” Yeah. Right. You told me, “I’m smarter than you think!” All you’ve managed to do so far is prove that you are far dumber than everyone thought — because actions speak louder than words.<\/p>\n
I’m praying that you will return before the damage is permanent, but my fears sometimes get the best of me and I think perhaps you won’t find the strength and courage in time. And then I’ll mourn over the waste of such a beautiful life.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seeking Another by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Remember during your trial how surprised you were, not only to see Matt on the stand stoned but at how dumbly he answered the questions put to him? I mentioned afterward not to forget that this is how you are when you use marijuana. I now admit that I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65718","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65806,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/growing-pains\/","url_meta":{"origin":65718,"position":0},"title":"Growing Pains (Searching)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing Pains by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Satan is never content with trapping a person in a single sin. There is always a possibility of escaping, so he drags a person deeper into sin to make escape look impossible. You can see this in your own life. You've told me several\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25973,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/sober-minded\/","url_meta":{"origin":65718,"position":1},"title":"Sober Minded","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Sober Minded by Jeffrey W. Hamilton It is easy for the addict to tell himself that being under the influence of marijuana isn't that bad. After all, he can still function, at least to some extent, while high. That is why people tell themselves they are better students, better lovers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/avoiding-stress\/","url_meta":{"origin":65718,"position":2},"title":"Avoiding Stress","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Avoiding Stress by Jeffrey W. Hamilton There are simple reasons most people aren't able to leave marijuana alone even when they know it isn't what they want in their life. The discomfort of withdrawal is more than they want to handle. \"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65776,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall\/","url_meta":{"origin":65718,"position":3},"title":"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall by Jeffrey W. Hamilton What do you see when you look into the mirror each day? It's been a while since I've seen you, but I suspect that any recent changes haven't been improvements. Marijuana doesn't just give you red eyes from all-night partying, addicts\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65826,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/getting-in-gear\/","url_meta":{"origin":65718,"position":4},"title":"Getting in Gear","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Getting in Gear by Jeffrey W. Hamilton One of the impacts marijuana has on the user is a lackadaisical approach to life. It isn't that there aren't big dreams, it is just that the user never seems to manage to make progress on those ideas. A big reason is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8464,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/preparation-for-a-lifetime\/temptations\/","url_meta":{"origin":65718,"position":5},"title":"Temptations","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Temptations Water runs the course of least resistance and many people navigate their lives in a similar manner. Problems appear so they do only as much as necessary for the problem to go away. They don\u2019t actually try to solve the problem. They just want the problem not to bother\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65718\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}