Why a night out can let you down!

I was listening to the build up for Friday night on Radio 1 and remembered the anticipation I used to feel. The lyrics and the beat of the music suggest that tonight is going to change your life. Going out is hyped up to be this transcendent experience, where you can throw off all constraints, where true freedom is found, where fun happens. People go through a whole week waiting for the weekend so that they can go out. The ritual of getting ready, having a couple of drinks first, going to a club with your girl friends, seems to hold some kind of magic.

This is not me saying that going out is bad, I love to have a good dance with the girls, but I am saying that a night out can sometimes offer you a lie. The lie is that the experience will be transcendent. It might even feel spiritual when you are in a club, ancient religious cults used the combination of music and alcohol to gain an ecstatic state, so this is nothing new. But it is a deception, and when all is quiet in the taxi home at 4am, you might just wonder why your night out was worth all that expectation.

Being a Christian is about a shift from darkness to light. A bright torch beam (the good news of Jesus) is shone in to the darkness of your life, and then you become a light in the world. Paul says in his letter to the church in Ephesus:

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)." Ephesians 5:8-9

The cocktail of drunkenness, dancing, and sexual encounters created by clubbing happens in the dark and is an expression of moral darkness. Paul says:

"Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." Ephesians 5:11

Somehow we have been conned into thinking that jumping up and down in a dark room and rubbing up against each other is what it takes to have fun, and is worthy of devoting our time and money to. As Paul says, this is fruitless, totally foolish.

In his letter Paul goes on to explain that living in the light requires discernment about these things:

"Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery (*debauchery -a strange word basically referring to wild partying with lots of alchohol and sex). Instead, be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:15-18

There is nothing transcendent about the shameful things that go on in the dark at clubs and house parties. If we are wise we will see this. Following Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit (*Filled with the Holy Spirit - the experience of Christians that the Holy Spirit has come into their heart, enabling transformation. Also refers to a regular filling with peace, strength, and power from the Holy Spirit to help us in our lives.) is the only good and true spiritual and transcendent experience. That's why if you expect this from your night out, it will inevitably fail you.

I know this is a strange thing for me to be reflecting on when I'm about to get married, but I really feel that I don't want us to see going out in the wrong way because it's a massive part of student life. I think developing a theology for going out is very important. Hope this helps, x