Dissatisfaction - Desire - Opportunity - Indulgence
4 words that broke the world.
4 words that mar our relationship with God every day.
4 words that will challenge us until the moment Jesus returns.
4 words that defined my choice of lunch today ...
I'll be honest with you, I'm bored of egg sandwiches. Ham is little better. And the salads I make for myself (if I get up in time) are wonderfully healthy but don't always survive the hot and bumpy journey to work well. Lunch is not my favourite meal of the day. I was reflecting on that fact last night. I'd just finished dinner - a much more inspiring and satisfying delight, concocted with the full armoury of herbs and sauces available in my kitchen.
I was momentarily toying with the idea of making soup. But the TV, which had been murmuring in the background, grabbed my attention. A new lunch range from Marks and Spencer? This could be the answer! No more samey sandwiches. There is a better way. Delicious and nutritious vietnamese style marinated pork salad bites in mooli ribbons with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. Oh yes! A little more expensive than my usual lunch fare, admittedly, but so enticing.
Rather conveniently, I pass an outlet of Marks and Spencer on my way to work. It opens nice and early. There was just time between buses to pop in. And there it was in all its glory. The lunch box of my dreams - calling to me, luring me in. Apparently it provides 2 of your 5 daily portions of fruit and vegetables. Healthy indeed (if you ignore the bucket-load of salt they add). It took a few short seconds to make it to the checkout. Day 1 of my new, improved lunch. My lunch was long gone by lunchtime!
Sound like a pointless tale? A pathetic daytime ditty?
Substitute "forbidden fruit" for lunch and you have the tale of Genesis 3. Substitute "husband" and you have the narrative of many an affair. Substitute "car" and you have the story of spiraling debt and a fixation with the things of this world rather than the world to come. Substitute whatever it is for you today and see your attitudes and actions in their true context ...
When we let the seeds of discontent take root in our heart and buy in to the lie of the world that we deserve whatever our heart desires we are on dangerous ground. Such thinking leads us to the precipice and when opportunity presents itself we all too often dive headlong into sinful indulgence. It's not a complex relationship of cause and effect but it's one we fall foul of, day after day. It's what brought sin into the world. And it's the mechanism by which sin is repeated across the centuries.
Dissatisfaction - Desire - Opportunity - Indulgence
A yummy lunch? That little treat I am going to allow myself today. The many other areas of dissatisfaction and desire I have been indulging in recent weeks? Those need to be the subject of repentance.
Join me ... please.
