To Club or Not to Club

Too often, Bible teachings become clichés. Like the ‘and they lived happily ever after’ at the end of a story or the ‘better safe than sorry’ in a talk from your parents, these are words that we’re just tired of hearing so we automatically shut our ears off when we hear them. We say, ‘Yeah, whatever. I already know that’ and we keep going on with our day.

Oh, but how we stab ourselves in the back when we treat Bible teachings like this. Like they’re just another cliché phrases that we’ve heard a billion times.

I had to think about this when I got a quite tempting proposition from one of my cousins who came to visit me this summer. My cousins live overseas, so in the little time they were visiting us, we wanted to spend as much time as we could with them. As my cousins, my brother and I are sitting on your rooftop, late one night, looking at the stars, one of my cousins says that she wants to go clubbing with us the next Friday night. Now, for some of you, this might not be a problem or a temptation, but for me, it is.

At first, I said no and came up with bad excuses to avoid talking about the subject. Eventually, I gave in and I said yes because a night out with my cousins sounded like fun and I didn’t think much about it afterward. When I told my mom I decided to do this, she was not happy.

What good can a Christian find in the club?

How does this glorify God?

You cannot live to please other people. You live to follow Jesus.

Would this be something Jesus would want you to do?

You can have fun in a way that glorifies God.

These were all questions and statements that she told me once I told her about my decision of going clubbing but the statement that stuck with me was ‘You cannot live to please other people. You live to follow Jesus’. How many times have I not heard this at church or at a Bible study? It’s basic Christian knowledge that we live to follow and serve our Lord and Savior, but how many times do we over look this like it’s another cliché? We’ve heard this a billion times, but do we actually put it into practice? I realized at that moment after talking to my mom that I rarely consulted Jesus in my decision-making process.

Do you consult Jesus every time you are about to make a decision? Is pleasing Jesus a priority for you or do people come first? Would you give into peer pressure so you won’t feel like the odd kid out?

After some thought, I told my cousin that I wouldn’t be going because I decided that pleasing Jesus and striving to be like Him every day is way more beneficial for me than clubbing. I believe I made the right choice. What choice would you have made?

Ephesians 5:8-10

“For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”

Romans 12: 2

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

But I’d rather make ’em yawn than be a pawn on your chessboard
So call me boring, call me cookie cutter
Call me what you want, a matter of fact
Just say it loud and don’t stutter
'Cause I know who I am, yeah I’m still the same

--- Tori Kelly