Just For The Taste Of It...
After a few determined months of going without, I picked up a Diet Coke again this month. It started as just one because I "needed" it, and with that sip I was reminded of how much I enjoy that calorie-less slight burn of the bubble on my tongue that is Diet Coke. It felt good. It tasted good. I've no doubt it's an addiction-one I've laid down twice now and picked back up.
This time it had only been a few short months. I've gone as long as nine months without the "just for the taste of it" satisfaction once before picking one back up in a moment of weakness.
Here's the thing-as much as I enjoy the taste and immediate results of the drink, I don't at all enjoy the lasting effects. I've been without, and I know overall I feel so much better mentally and physically when I'm not drinking that mess. It holds me back, makes me tired. Keeps me from being the best physical and mental version of myself. When I shook the habit, I felt like I was made new.
Today at lunch, a friend shook her head at me and let a short and subtle laugh escape as she watched me touch that diet button on the machine. I'll admit, I almost didn't refill my cup with the diet version while she was standing there, out of sheer pride. She was around when I sat it down back in May. She knew I had caved recently "once," but she hadn't actually SEEN me drink it yet.
The truth is, not refilling my drink with diet in front of her wouldn't have made the reality of my backslide any less real. The struggle is real, and this struggle is one I willingly walked right back in to.
Diet Coke is just a drink, albeit one tagged with questionable effects on the human body. It's an illustration, but it got me pondering how true this is of other struggles we face, the big ones. The real ones, the ones that continue to arise time and time again in our lives. The ones we lay down over and over and over, the ones we consistently cry out for God to just take-and then we hold on to.
Like my Diet Coke story, don't we sometimes lay things down at the Cross, only to pick them back up? Our fears, worries, insecurities, our control, a relationship, pet sins, anger, bitterness? It's different for us all, but I know in my own life there are things I continually lay down at the feet of Jesus only to find myself picking them right back up. Just like the Diet Coke, maybe the familiarity of it all is something I chose not to resist in the moment. How often I've marked something as just being a part of who I am, when it doesn't have to be. In the moment, it feels normal. It might even taste good to drink in that old habit, but the lasting effects are never good. In fact, they are quite harmful. They create barriers of sin and reveal areas of distrust. They say to Jesus, "I got this. I don't need you on this one..." They keep you tied to burdens you don't have to bear-hindering you from being and experiencing all that Christ desires for you.
So where do we go when we find ourselves in this place? I think all we can do is humbly release our hold-pry (and pray) each finger off one by one if we have to, and simply ask forgiveness for picking back up that which we've already laid down. Try again. Set it aside. Surrender the burden once again that Jesus laid down His own life for, in order that it wouldn't be ours to carry. Lay it down and be made new.
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed."
1 Peter 2:24
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
This time it had only been a few short months. I've gone as long as nine months without the "just for the taste of it" satisfaction once before picking one back up in a moment of weakness.
Here's the thing-as much as I enjoy the taste and immediate results of the drink, I don't at all enjoy the lasting effects. I've been without, and I know overall I feel so much better mentally and physically when I'm not drinking that mess. It holds me back, makes me tired. Keeps me from being the best physical and mental version of myself. When I shook the habit, I felt like I was made new.
Today at lunch, a friend shook her head at me and let a short and subtle laugh escape as she watched me touch that diet button on the machine. I'll admit, I almost didn't refill my cup with the diet version while she was standing there, out of sheer pride. She was around when I sat it down back in May. She knew I had caved recently "once," but she hadn't actually SEEN me drink it yet.
The truth is, not refilling my drink with diet in front of her wouldn't have made the reality of my backslide any less real. The struggle is real, and this struggle is one I willingly walked right back in to.
Diet Coke is just a drink, albeit one tagged with questionable effects on the human body. It's an illustration, but it got me pondering how true this is of other struggles we face, the big ones. The real ones, the ones that continue to arise time and time again in our lives. The ones we lay down over and over and over, the ones we consistently cry out for God to just take-and then we hold on to.
Like my Diet Coke story, don't we sometimes lay things down at the Cross, only to pick them back up? Our fears, worries, insecurities, our control, a relationship, pet sins, anger, bitterness? It's different for us all, but I know in my own life there are things I continually lay down at the feet of Jesus only to find myself picking them right back up. Just like the Diet Coke, maybe the familiarity of it all is something I chose not to resist in the moment. How often I've marked something as just being a part of who I am, when it doesn't have to be. In the moment, it feels normal. It might even taste good to drink in that old habit, but the lasting effects are never good. In fact, they are quite harmful. They create barriers of sin and reveal areas of distrust. They say to Jesus, "I got this. I don't need you on this one..." They keep you tied to burdens you don't have to bear-hindering you from being and experiencing all that Christ desires for you.
So where do we go when we find ourselves in this place? I think all we can do is humbly release our hold-pry (and pray) each finger off one by one if we have to, and simply ask forgiveness for picking back up that which we've already laid down. Try again. Set it aside. Surrender the burden once again that Jesus laid down His own life for, in order that it wouldn't be ours to carry. Lay it down and be made new.
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed."
1 Peter 2:24
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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