In light of my last post on that fabulous Fair food--and in the interest of journalistic integrity--I think I need to provide an update on our Fair food eating extravaganza. Boy, we had such a blast eating our way through the the Fair. It's pretty obvious that we left virtually no food left untried, and while we were on our gastronomic walking tour, virtually none of it proved a disappointment. It was all just as delectable as we remembered from last year (and the year before that and the year before that and.. well, you get the idea. We are nothing, if not loyal.)
But here's the thing we always conveniently forget: no matter how great that Fair food tastes while you’re eating it, it never satisfies. In fact, it makes you feel pretty sick. By the end of the night, we all felt stuffed--but not a happy stuffed, like at Thanksgiving--we felt fairly gross. And the next morning, we all felt doubly hungry because all those fried Oreos and NC State ice cream and fried dough don’t truly satisfy or nourish... at least not beyond an hour after you eat them.
Now granted, it was totally worth every calorie-ladden, greasy, nutritionally horrific, and obscenely over-priced bite. At least at the time. But, by the next morning, we weren't so sure. The price of lethargy, unhappy digestive systems, exacerbated hunger, larger waists--but smaller wallets-- made us think it might not have been such a terrific idea after all. (Okay, I lie--it was SO totally worth it--just don't tell Dr. Oz.)
But don’t we do that everyday? We trade God's best for our unsatisfying and inferior substitutes. We choose the quick and easy over the slower but more meaningful. How often do we choose a big helping of fried worrying and fretting over trusting in the Lord who is in control of all our circumstances? Or maybe it’s an order of dipped and battered complaining and ingratitude rather than choosing to thank and praise God for all He’s given us in His grace and goodness. Or it could just be a huge scoop of choosing to put other priorities before Him and choosing the urgent over the important and so missing God’s best for us.
The prophet Jeremiah described it as hewing broken cisterns for ourselves rather than enjoying God's fountain of living waters: "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Seriously, don't we do that? Jesus offers us His Living Water that fully quenches our thirst and gives joyous, abundant Life, and we opt for the stagnant cistern of own devices,desires and destructive habits. "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14)
Why on earth are we so blind, so pig-headed, so dumb that we choose a stale puddle of muddy water for the refreshing fountain of living water? Well, sin is always foolish, isn't it? And we will always fight that battle against our foolish old sin natures.
I love how John Piper puts it: “Jesus is the most valuable treasure in the world.” And so everyday, we must “fight the fight of faith... the fight to continually see and savor” the supreme worth and treasure of Jesus above all other things. Listen to what Piper says: “The fight for faith is the fight for joy. I get up every morning, and fight that fight. Am I wanting to look at Twitter before I look at Jesus? It sounds stupid. That’s how stupid sin is. Every morning there is war in the Piper household. and it’s not against my family. It’s against me and my old man. I have to reckon myself dead over and over again. Pray that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on me. That my eyes would be opened and I would see and savor Christ as supreme. That’s war and that’s the life of faith.”
I go to war everyday. Only some days, I tend to surrender far too quickly and easily to the enemy urging me to indulge in his inferior substitutes--overspending or overcommitting or overworking or worrying or complaining or frenzied rushing. Sips of bitter, stale water when I could have been gulping refreshing, satisfying Living Water.
O Lord, help us not to choose the lesser over the infinitely greater.
The choice is up to us--every single day. Choose the eternal over the temporary. Choose the unseen over the seen. Choose the life of faith over the life of feelings. Choose holiness over indulgence. Choose God's best over the world's crass substitutes.
Choose Living Water over broken cisterns.
And live... really live the abundant, full life He died to give us.
With a new 24 hours, what will you choose?
To God be the glory.
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