Its a treat not a meal. This is what I almost daily say to my kids when they want a second piece of cake, extra snacks, or more juice. I did not listen to this wise advice the other night. I ate a lot of pizza and cookies. Not like, "Oh a little bit of pizza would be great with a small cookie" But more like "If I don't eat this pizza and dish of cookie bars the whole world could implode" ate pizza and cookies. I had generally avoid these foods as a healthy living choice but I decided to have a treat. It was delicious. Treats are not bad but when we get out of control with our treats and turn them into meals we have a problem. The next day for lunch there wasn't much to eat aside from leftovers so again...I dove in. After pizza and cookies I fell into a sort of sugar coma. I slept for about an hour. It was not my finest moments.
As I lay on my bed and slowly started to come out of my sugar coma I realized a decision needed to be made. I needed to choose to take new direction in my actions or continue to wallow in my poor eating choices. So, I got up, laced up my sneakers and went for a run. Sometimes we need to acknowledge where we are and make a conscious change.
This story can apply to so many avenues of our lives. We say something constructive and then figure if we already started we might as well truly say what's on our mind. We can't help it. Its just how we are. Or maybe its a bad attitude. We try to hold in our frustrations and instead of talking about whats truly going on we rattle off the entire laundry list of annoyances of the week. It's not like it is our fault that everyone gets on our nerves. Or maybe its laziness. We sit down to watch one episode of our favorite TV show for a short rest and end up several hours later still in front of the TV with no excuse for why nothing on our "to-do" list got done.
God created humans with a free will. We get to make choices. And we can make good ones or bad ones. When we recognize that we have made a poor choice we can either keep going or make some new decisions to get on a better track. Some times it is a slow recovery. Sometimes there are irreparable consequences for our actions but we can always choose to turn a corner and make better choices so that we don't rack up a bigger and bigger pile of consequences.
This is the Christian life. The opportunity to choose good. It's what shows the world what changes Jesus can bring in a person. We make the hard but good choices. We choose grace when it seems there is no room. We choose love when others hate. We choose to help when others only watch. We choose. And when we do choose poorly we own up to it. Sometimes it is the choices we make after choosing poorly that shows the world that Jesus makes a difference. Being a follower of Jesus gives us the power to make those hard but good decisions. It also gives us the wisdom and strength to make amends for poor decisions of our past. And when those times come and we make bad decisions, we can quickly turn away from the bad and turn back to God. We can let it be a short set back not a meal.
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