Good Food - Evil Food

Most people would probably agree that food can be good (as in natural, healthy). Some might question my use of "evil" as a modifier for food. Read on and see if I don't make believers of you...

After a morning of working feverishly to complete last-minute, under-the-gun details for Spa Day (ahhh, wonderful grace-filled Spa Day), I threw on some clothes and rushed out the door for a meeting with my pastor. Along the way, I dashed through the McDonald's drive-through to get my " need it in a pinch" moderately healthy stand-by: a grilled chicken sandwich and a fruit and yogurt parfait. By the time I pull into the church parking lot, I was famished and I almost tore into the bag to devour the meal right there in my car. But then it occurred to me that it would be much more enjoyable to savor this inside at my desk. Almost panting from hunger, after I got into my office I opened the bag and saw, to my horror, A BIG MAC and LARGE FRENCH FRIES. Maybe this isn't on the order of serial-killer evil, but I challenge anybody to argue that sandwich wasn't malevolent and sinister. (OK, maybe a bit exaggerated, but then again you didn't hear it whispering sweet love murmurings as it tenderly, craftily wooed you with its seduction.)

Even in small matters such as this, grace is so prevalent. Just as I decide to trash the bag of vile food, my neighbor's son walked in with my weekly delivery of locally grown produce. (I had to google some of the green leafy mystery plants. I mean, really now, does anybody know what Swiss Chard looks like? And mother, if you are reading this, dad was right, turnips are delicious. He was right that all your veggie soup needed was the addition of a few root vegetables!) It was surreal looking at that basket brimming with nature's goodness juxtaposed against a grease-soaked bag of "food". I popped a juicy strawberry in my mouth and slam-dunked that soggy bag of goop into my wastebasket.

And that's my tale of good triumphing over evil. Small victories, people, small victories.

PS I am soaked in grace when it comes to overcoming temptation. Last Sunday, I was headed to the Family Life Center for the Senior Banquet when I got locked out of the church in the interior courtyard far away from the festivities. I sat there for one hour and forty minutes! dreaming of the hot dogs and hamburgers that everybody else was happily devouring while I sat desolate, alone, and barely alive in that dreary courtyard. While I wasted away, they were feasting on sheet cake and God only knows what matter of delicacies. By the time somebody happened along and found me (Jim, you are an angel!), not a scrap of food remained. I went home and ate salmon and a salad, and called myself "blessed".