I don’t know about any of the other parents out there, but the majority of the time my wife and I tell our kids it is time to eat dinner, we are met with groans and complaints. Unless, of course, we are having one of their favorite meals: pizza, spaghetti or meatloaf. They will sit, and oftentimes, before even taking a bite, they ask, “How much do I need to eat to be done?” or “How much do I need to eat to have a treat?” If some sort of dessert is provided, as soon as they have it their dinner is pushed to the side or taken to the sink. They aren’t thinking about dinner anymore, because they have what they really want. They don’t sit down and eat dinner because they are hungry or because they recognize they need nutrition to sustain themselves; they eat because they have to and it just a means to the end of getting dessert.
We all focus on the desserts of heaven and the blessings he has promised as we shove the daily nutrition to the side. We want the victory; not the preparation.
I’m not sure why, but one day at “Salsarita’s,” after I gave my kids the go ahead. I watched them shove their tacos and chips to the side and grab their cinnamon sugar donut holes. I started thinking about, how adults often act the same way. Perhaps we don’t do it concerning food, but we certainly have the same tendency to only focus on the “sweet taste of victory” and deny ourselves the nutrition that we really need. I recognize there are several areas where this plays out: relationships, careers, parenting and probably some that I haven’t even considered yet, but the area that came to mind is our walk with Jesus Christ. We all focus on the desserts of heaven and the blessings he has promised as we shove the daily nutrition to the side. We want the victory; not the preparation.
We don’t really want the walk with Jesus; we just want to make sure we aren’t going to Hell.
You see my kids don’t understand nutrition or what their body needs. They just know what they like and don’t like. So if something better comes along, they aren’t worried about making sure they are giving their bodies the fuel they need to make it through the day; they just want to taste something sweet. Oftentimes Christians fall into the same trap. We don’t really want the walk with Jesus; we just want to make sure we aren’t going to Hell. We don’t really want the change in our lives; we just want to know that God is there so if we need something, we can call on Him for help.
The same is typical for Christians, when we start to face hard times we dive into scripture, pray fervently and maybe we even make an appearance or two at church, but just like those crash dieters, as soon as the problems fades away so does our need to focus on healthy food.
Sometimes we are forced into a diet because we get some bad news from the doctor and so for a few weeks or maybe even a month we are eating salads and fruit bowls in an effort to get our health issues under control. The same is typical for Christians, when we start to face hard times we dive into scripture, pray fervently and maybe we even make an appearance or two at church, but just like those crash dieters, as soon as the problems fades away so does our need to focus on healthy food. So we fall back into our old patterns. We stop reading, stop praying and make church less and less of a priority in our lives.
Do we really want to use God like a crash diet so we can make sure we look good at the beach?
Is that really the type of Christians we are called to be? Do we really want to use God like a crash diet so we can make sure we look good at the beach? Talk to any health expert, be it a personal trainer, a nutritionist or just somebody that chooses a healthy lifestyle and they will all tell you the same thing: It can’t be a diet, it can’t just be about losing weight, quick fixes don’t work and you will always gain the weight back unless it becomes a lifestyle. It has to just be the way you live out your life. Anything else is just setting you up for failure and disappointment. It takes daily commitment to truly reap the benefits of diet and exercise. If you want to be healthier than you have to live out that lifestyle everyday by staying active and making healthier choices. You can’t just eat what you have always eaten with the addition of a side salad.
We have far too many underfed, malnourished “Christians” in the world today. They are fat on the promises of wealth and eternal life, but lacking the sustenance of a real relationship. They gorge themselves on worship songs, but refuse to take their vitamins in daily quiet time with God. They devour the sweet little morsels of verse-a-day calendars, but leave the main course, The Bible, untouched. They get their snacks while watching Christian movies, but their spiritual gifts fall to atrophy as they refuse to get up and run the race themselves.
I’m also not saying it is wrong to want dessert or to look forward to it; I’m just saying we shouldn’t deny ourselves the nutrition that our body so desperately needs because we are only focused on dessert.
Don’t misunderstand me I’m not saying there is anything wrong with any of those things. Any way you can bring more scripture into your life is a good thing, but none of those things can replace actually getting into the Bible and spending time with God. I’m also not saying it is wrong to want dessert or to look forward to it; I’m just saying we shouldn’t deny ourselves the nutrition that our body so desperately needs because we are only focused on dessert. We all look forward to Heaven, but don’t deny yourself the comfort, joy, peace, and, yeah, sometimes challenges (but what great rewards come out of them) that we get from a life spent walking with Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t promise that our lives will be perfect…However, He does promise that he will give us peace in impossible situations, armor to protect us from our greatest enemy, and strength to run and finish the race.
People look forward to the blessings and promises of the Bible of which there are many, but the vast majority of them require our faith and obedience to God. If you want God to provide for you, you need to trust God with your money. If you want God to speak to you and grant you wisdom then you need to be willing to talk to Him so you can recognize His voice when He is speaking. If you want God to bless your family then you need to make sure you are raising your family in scripture and according to God’s plan. God doesn’t promise that our lives will be perfect and he doesn’t promise to pull us out every bad situation we find ourselves in. However, He does promise that he will give us peace in impossible situations, armor to protect us from our greatest enemy, and strength to run and finish the race. The problem is so few of us ever get to experience those things because we never read the Bible and never spend time with God in prayer. We got our ticket to heaven and that is really all we were after anyway.
I understand Heaven is like the ultimate dessert: paradise with no pain, no tears, no sickness, no worries, and streets of gold is like the cherry on top. Not to mention if you look at the alternative for eternity, obviously Heaven is the better choice, I get it. It’s ok to be excited for dessert, but don’t skip the dinner that God has provided. God has provided us with filet mignon, so why are we surviving on McDonald’s?
