Smokers, tokers, pokers...and forkers?

"If you find honey, eat just enough, too much of it, and you will vomit" -Proverbs 25:16

During my Monday morning coffee at my favorite local coffee shop (The SHOP); I noticed the ginormous coffee mug some lady brought in. You can see it in the picture. Now, nobody likes a persnickety person, especially a health and nutrition one, but I was taken back by the glutenous bravado of such a mug. Does anyone really need such a bladder buster? Shall I belly up to the coffee bar with my washed out milk jug and ask them to fill it up with the drip brew of the day?

When will we realize that we are killing ourselves with such lunacy?

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who do iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies. -Psalms 141:3-4

An elderly man, sat down next to me with a cinnamon roll the size of his head and he washed it down with a bottle of fruit juice! Heck, I think I was catching an insulin buzz off him from across the couch!

The more I seek to contemplate my own sinfulness in light of how I have abused my body...the more I realize there are pushers of pleasure all around me. The Pastry Pimps and Munchie Madams are seducing us on every corner. There is more mainlining of sugar and caffeine going on around us than any meth-a-demic...and its completely acceptable...in fact, its encouraged! If you try to decline or moderate your consumption...you encounter a weird cultural pressure and disdain.

Its maddening how complicated this path can be...especially in the church.

As a preacher, you can hammer on the smokers, tokers and pokers...but dare to touch the forkers and...well, you know.

I remember the guilty feelings I would have as I would run off to the corner of the church property as a young adult, to catch a quick smoke after sunday school and before the worship service. Oh the shame I pummeled myself with; while my overweight pastors and fellow muffin toppers were cramming themselves into those small pews. Those condescending eyes and noses glaring at me in my post smoke stench; as I shimmied past their overweight stomachs.

The hypocrisy was nuts.

"You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead." -1 Peter 4:3-5

I'm not sure if I ever have heard a sermon on the issue, in over 40 years.

"Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags." -Proverbs 23:20-21
"Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony." - Proverbs 23:2

"Let your moderation be known unto all men." -Philippians 4:5

"Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things". -Phil 3:19

It's tough walking this path, trying to change and opening your mind and heart to new ways of living. It's not easy embracing new foods, moving and relearning how to have a relationship with food and culture. It's frightening how much self deception, bondage, self medicating, illusionary living, slavery and self hate is rooted in the industry and pushed from the store shelves. It's eye opening to see the matrix of servitude and self delusion that is going on with fork and spoon. The powers that be are harvesting off the lusts of our own hearts and the brokenness of our society. The poor are at the mercy of the industry, food is now bought not grown and the impoverishment of our society is funding a medical industry that benefits from our idolatry...and as long as we think its cheap and tasty we love it so.

The bombardment is mind numbing...and saying no...has become a radical act of defiance.


Unplug...it might not always taste as good...but remember...living free is always better than being a slave.