16 November 2011

Overindulging


Below the Spicy Baked Apples Recipe in my cookbook is a quote:

"When the holiday season of consumption that began on "black Friday" (the Friday after
 U.S. Thanksgiving that is supposed to help merchants end the year in the "black") draws to
a close, our consumption doesn't stop, it just changes focus.  During the holiday season we
are encouraged to consume, especially foods, to feel loved.  In January we are encouraged to
purchase diet foods and exercise equipment; ironically, to assuage our previous overindulgence."
-Simply in Season

I'm keeping this in my mind as I go throughout my days...how overindulgence is hard to stop.  How in my eating, my buying, my planning, I want to stay moderate.  How it's not such a blessing to overindulge on Thanksgiving when I'm doing it daily anyway.

We've been reading lots on the Pilgrims lately.  So much, actually, that when my oldest got his next history reading assignment he looked at his dad who happened to be giving it to him while I was at a meeting and said, "You can't be serious, not another Pilgrim book!"

One thing I found fascinating was that even in their infamous sea biscuits, maggots and other disgusting bugs had found a home.  It was so bad that some of the Pilgrims waited until after dark to eat their food...at least that way they couldn't see what they were ingesting.

It is out of that dark, putrid, barely sustaining situation that Thanksgiving came.


And I'm reading in Romans.  It is out of the near dead body of Abraham the life of a nation is born.  Not just the nation of the Jewish people, but a nation of all who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

From what I can understand in this chapter (4), because Abraham believed God's words, that he would hold in his arms a son in his old age, God credited his belief to Abraham as righteousness.  A dead man brought to life, brought forth life.

It's like buying stuff on credit, knowing one of these days you're going to have to face up to the numbers, the red numbers condemning you, stalking you, looming over you and darkening your days.  But then God speaks and gives you an offer...He'll fill your home with life.  And you believe Him.

Then that account that was so defeating, when you reconcile the numbers, is changed to righteousness.  How can it be?  You, who were in deep debt, receiving righteousness and life instead!

It is this truth I want to overindulge on during this extravagant season--on the God who gives life to the dead and those in the red, and calls things that are not as though they were.

No comments: