I just got back from lunch with an old friend. Towards the end he lamented about how unhealthyhe feels everytime he eats at Mickey D’s. I agreed with him but countered that ‘it tastes so good at first’. He responded by joking about how that’s a great spiritual object lesson about sin.
And he’s right. I knew it and it seemed pretty trivial. But that lesson hit home when I went to get a drink refill before we left.
First, let me give you some context. I gave up drinking pop from Labor Day to New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t a spiritual fast by any means but I know how unhealthy soda is and wanted to do something healthy if I couldn’t exercise as much as I wanted to (that’s a whole separate issue). So this past New Year’s Eve I ended that streak, and it tasted good, especially Cream Soda.
So that brings us to today, where I’d gotten a Powerade on my first round. As I went back to get my refill, I had no desire to fill up a Large drink with Coke or Dr. Pepper. Maybe it was the Big Mac that was settling in my stomach and fries that were going straight to my hips : ), whatever it was, I was surprised I had no thrist for the caffeine and sugar of soda pop. Will it make a big difference to my health? Probably not, but I am pleased with myself.
Now is there a spiritual lesson here? I say yes. When we struggle with sin, especially a specific sin, the more we indulge in it the worse our spiritual lives get. The more we give in, the more we drink it, the more it becomes a habit and contributes to the deterioration of our spiritual health. Yet the opposite is also true. The more we cut ourselves off from it, the more we abstain from that which so easily entangles, the less directly appealing it is to us and the healthier our spiritual lives are.
The more we replace sin with God’s Word, with intimacy with Christ, the less of a thirst we’ll have for sin. One of the main drinks I imbibed over my ‘pop-fast’ was Powerade Mountain Blast flavor. What did I choose today instead of pop? That exact option. I discovered the Powerade was a tasty enough (and healthy enough?) alternative that pop doesn’t have the same appeal to me it once did.
Likewise, sin won’t have the same powerful pull on our hearts when we’ve focused ourselves on the grace, mercy, peace, and enduring faithfulness of our Conquering Savior.
Last 5 posts by Lee Compson
- Here we go again - August 30th, 2010
- Senior Pastor - Berean Bible Church, New Orleans LA - August 27th, 2010
- Senior Pastor - Cornerstone Community Church, Millersburg OH - August 26th, 2010
- Senior Pastor - Faith Bible Church, Oxford OH - August 26th, 2010
- Senior Pastor – Oakfield-Alabama Baptist Church, Corfu NY - August 20th, 2010