I love chocolate cake. Truly love it. But it's bad for me. If I eat it, it'll be on my thighs tomorrow and will take weeks of hard work to make it go away. It's so bad. I won't eat it. I won't. But it looks good. I wonder... See that little bit of icing hanging off the side? Maybe if I just broke that off... Such a little bit can't hurt. Mmm. That was good. I wonder if the cake's as good as the icing? I really need to try both to get a feel for what I'm not having. Just a crumb. Oh. Looks a bit obvious that I've broken off that bit. I'll just tidy it up with a knife... Such a thin slice is like having nothing at all. Mmm. Better take some off the other side to keep the same angle...It's not that bad. It's not like I had the whole piece... But since that I've had that much I might as well finish it off.
For me, the easiest crumb of cake to say no to is the first. After I've had that first bit, there's no stopping me. I've gotten a taste for it and will most likely keep going till all the cake's gone.
I was lying in bed the other night, imagining sin looking like a piece of chocolate cake. My dealing with the two is much the same. I know that x sin is bad. It's bad because God says it is, but it's also bad because it will lead to y and z undesirable consequences. So I decide not to do it. I just won't. Easy. But that tiniest, smallest sckeric of x's icing... I look. I think. I smell. I touch... My mouth is watering... I taste! My senses are euphoric! They cry out for a fuller experience! X, X! (Y and Z are, for the moment, out of sight.) X! The cry is deafening. Resistance useless. Defeat inevitable. I have x and x has me.
The trouble with sin (and chocolate cake) is that very quickly we develop a taste for it. Having had a little bit, we discover that we like it and we want more. There are cakes in the shop window that don't appeal to me. Baked cheese cake, pecan pie... but I'm confident that if I put the time in, I could acquire a taste for these. Similarly with sin. There are sins that I've had no particular inclination towards... but after a few crumbs and a bit of icing, they are putting fat on my soul as chocolate cake adds weight to my thighs.
In fact, I don't think there's many sins I couldn't acquire a taste for if I gave them a go.
So, what's the answer*?
1. Don't buy the cake. Don't even look at it. Don't smell it. Don't touch it. If someone else has brought it into the house, put on your gloves and bin it.
2. Say no to that first crumb and don't break off the icing. It does matter. The first crumb is the easiest to resist.
3. If some (somehow!) reaches your mouth, don't swallow! Stop. Spit it out now. All of it! And bin the rest of the cake.
4. So you've already had some? Don't make it worse. Stop now and bin the rest.
5. Work out what you're really craving. Chances are, it's not chocolate cake. Go fry up a steak.
* To sin, that is. Chocolate cake doesn't matter. In 100 years time, we'll all be thin.
Good post Simone. This issue is so universal. I think one good message the Bible has about it is flee, don't dawdle and stroll past.
ReplyDeleteI think my biggest downfall is that I dawdle around sin, glancing at it, imagining it. Not sinning in itself, but completely opening the door to the possibility of sinning.
I love that image of Joseph, the big strong bloke, actually running from Potiphers wife. Not just saying no, not walking away, but getting up and sprinting out of there.
I think success in the Christian walk is knowing just how weak you are, and acting on that accordingly, being overly cautious rather than skirting around your temptations.
Thanks for the thoughtful post.
This would be the perfect sermon illustration, were it not for the fact that everyone would start thinking about morning tea way too soon!
ReplyDeleteJust preached on Jonah on Sunday - the way he keeps going down, down, down as a metaphor for how sin gets its hooks in as you describe. And David with Bathsheba is the classic example.
Now, if only I'd thought of Joseph's example in time to use it...sigh.
Thanks guys. Joseph is the classic example, isn't he?
ReplyDeleteWas wondering if this illustration would work for guys or is just a female thing. Maybe it works better for guys since food is such an emotional issue for women that we hear 'chocolate cake' and immediately descend into our little whirlpool of guilt and despair...
A friend likens mother-of-millions to sin because they are so good at camouflage - they change their colour depending on their surroundings and grow on nothing.
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in north Queensland for a few years now I'd also liken it to sensitive weed which spreads really easily, "hides" when you touch it (by curling up its leaves) and the seeds can lie dormant for 50 odd years.
Unlike chocolate cake it has thorns, which make householders want to rip it out but it was originally introduced to the country through householders attracted by its novelty value (sensitive leaves and all) and possibly its pretty purple flower.
Your chocolate cake analogy is very good, the way it sucks you in with the fact that it can taste so nice. For me however most cake is off limits (and unattractive) as it will give me acne due to the dairy (unless it's a dairy-free cake of course). I'm not sure if the analogy can be stretched that far except as you've already done with baked cheese cake and pecan pie.