I think it’s only fair to warn you before you read this meditation that the message here is a hard one. On July 5, 2025, a drunk driver driving a large commercial van in Brampton, Ontario, collided into four vehicles. Sadly, it caused serious life-altering injuries to a man who was in one of those cars; he is only 21, and his entire life will be marked by injuries that were inflicted by that impaired driver who himself walked away unscathed. It’s unfortunately a scene repeatedly witnessed on our streets today. Despite numerous programs targeting impaired drivers, and despite the public outcry that has stigmatized anyone who drives impaired, the problem hasn’t decreased. In fact, it is a staggering statistic that one in three road deaths in Ontario is the result of impaired driving. What is so painful about the Brampton case was that the man had five previous convictions of driving while impaired. At the time of this accident, he had 2 life-time bans from driving, and by the time the article was reported in the news two days later, he had been released with a court injunction against driving. In an interview, the arresting officer seethed with disbelief that the man was once again on the streets. He said, “I have no doubt that he will drive drunk again.”
As I think of the issues that face our society regarding impaired driving, I am reminded that it is not just alcohol or substance abuse that imprisons us, but it is sin. Paul declares in the 6th chapter of the Book of Romans that we are slaves to sin, and that the fruit of sin is death. In the case of impaired driving, it kills more than just the one impaired. In the case of sin, many die from one person’s departure from the moral life and the bidding of the conscience. The Book of Ephesians contrasts the life of God from the life of impairment: “Do not be drunk with wine,” Ephesians 5:18 says, “but be filled with the Spirit.” Fundamentally, those whose lives are ruled by addictions are ruled by sin and not by the Spirit of God. A few years ago, a man who was at one of the churches I knew was rushed to the hospital with kidneys that shut down to only 2% functioning. We prayed for him to be healed, but we knew little that the main cause of his kidney issues was that he drank persistently and profusely. The problem was that he was also a worship leader at the church, served on the board as a treasurer, and was one who loudly condemned others who were found with any measure of sin, and the even greater problem was that those around him at church knew, and said nothing. Miraculously, he pulled through, but the hardest conversation was the confrontation of his sin and of the silence of his friends. In the end, he said, “I have learned that I cannot escape the hand of God.” Go back to Romans 6: How can a child of God let sin dominate over him? As in that impaired driver from Brampton, it is not the severity of the punishment, or the power of the courts, or the shaming of society that turns a person from slavery into freedom. It is Christ. And if we are prisoners to an addiction, my counsel is this: Don’t hide it. Don’t make your friends hide it. Get the help needed. Deal with it openly before God. You cannot hope to escape the hand of God.
Just Church
At Just Church, we are committed to live the life Christ called us to live, and to teach others to do the same: “The vision of Just Church is to establish a church in just the way Christ called the church to be – true to His Word, loving Him, loving one another, and loving the lost.”
