When you are driving down the interstate, you can’t help but read the bumper stickers and signs on the vehicles in front of you. A sign on a beer truck caught my attention. It read, “The Miller Brewing Company invites you to Think When You Drink.” Illustrating the sign were some broken yellow lines like you see in the center of the highway.

What does “Think When You Drink” mean? Since the sign had a highway illustration, maybe they were telling me that if I drink and drive, I should think about the fact that I am taking my life and the lives of everyone around me in my hands, and risking mayhem and injury, since drunk drivers are fifteen times more likely to be in a fatal accident than non-drinkers.

Perhaps they were telling me that I need to drive carefully so that I will not receive a DUI  (Driving Under the Influence) citation that will jeopardize my driver’s license or increase my insurance premiums by thousands of dollars.

Perhaps they were telling me that since every drink kills brain cells and impairs my judgment, I need to try extra hard when making those split second decisions necessary for driving a vehicle weighing thousands of pounds at sixty-five miles per hour.

I really don’t know what Miller Beer had in mind by saying “Think When You Drink,” because when you begin to drink it is already TOO LATE to think. Every single drink impairs judgment and has its effect. The wisdom of Solomon is still true: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).

There are at least ten million alcoholics in the United States, not to mention millions of other problem drinkers. The average alcoholic has four others in the family, and the family suffers tremendously when a member drinks. Alcohol drains more than fifteen billion dollars from the economy each year through lost work time, health and welfare services, property damage, and increased medical costs.

A better slogan for the beer company would be, “Think and Then Don’t Drink.” I don’t expect to see that slogan, though, because it would hurt the sale of their bottled poison.

“Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it giveth his colour in the cup, When it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder” (Proverbs 23:29-32).