FAST FOOD

I’ve really been doing some research lately about the lack of nutritional value of some of the food our family eats. Sad to say, because of poor planning on my part in failing to bring nutritious food along with us when we are out running errands, we eat fast food way too often.  Although there are a few healthy choices at fast food restaurants now I’ve learned that most of the meals we get going through the drive thru may slowly be killing us because they aren't even real food. Unfortunately, there have been hundreds if not thousands of times over the years that we have grabbed some sort of fast meal on the go because of our hectic schedule.  Even though I’ve always known that fast food is not the best option for us to consume, the draw for me has been that we can get our meal quickly, consume it in the car and be on our way to accomplish more important tasks.

Although I’m now finally learning the dangers of trying to survive on too much fast food, I believe that for years some of my hesitation to visit a drive thru was plagued by my most perilous but memorable trips picking up a quick meal.  That particular day will go down in history as one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life!  For this very reason, I know that God would definitely want me to share this special memory and what He has taught me with all of you.

Of course my husband was out of town at the time and the kids and I had just spent a couple of hours at the doctor’s office.  It was Prayer Meeting night at church and since I was the Pastor’s wife I felt slightly guilty about missing part of it even though it could not be helped.  We were doing our best however to hurry to get there, but we were all hungry so we decided to quickly run through the KFC drive thru on the way to church.  Our van had been acting a little funny that day, but that was to be expected as the odometer was nearing the 400,000 mile mark. 

As we sat in the drive thru waiting to receive our food, we began to smell some interesting odors coming from our van.  All of the sudden we heard a loud boom that sounded like an explosion and a huge cloud of black smoke began towering from the engine.  I thought the van was going to blow up right there in the drive thru!  All the kids and I quickly jumped out in fear that the whole thing was going to go up in flames.  I’m not very mechanical and I don’t know much about cars, but when you see a river of black oil pouring out all over the pavement, something must be wrong.  All of the KFC employees scurried out of the restaurant to see what was going on and expressed their need to immediately call the fire department. By this time, since we were on the main road in our small town, our situation was drawing some attention. 

As I mentioned before, my husband was traveling for business at the time. Feeling a little vulnerable and helpless having four young children, a baby and a van that had virtually exploded right in front of our eyes. I stood in tears in the drive thru as I attempted to find the positive besides the fact that we all escaped this catastrophe without harm.  This situation wouldn’t have been so horrible to me if it hadn’t occurred in such a public place, and the drive thru of all places. Needless to say, I had to interrupt Prayer Meeting to call one of the deacons of our church who was a talented mechanic.  We were so thankful that several guys from the church came to assist us, got a tow truck to haul off our beast and gave us all a ride safely home. 

I must admit for a few years after our KFC incident, I was slightly apprehensive of going thru drive thru's to pick up fast food.  I finally eased back into the practice once the trama of possible car explosions or fires had passed.  As I have been recently investigating the perilous consequences of consuming so much fast food, the more I started making the connection between how we eat our physical food with how we consume spiritual food.  Not only is it important for us to examine the nutritional quality of our meals, it is essential that we contemplate as Christians how we are feeding ourselves spiritually. 

We are definitely living in a society that simply wants a quick fix in every area of our lives.  Sadly, Christians have even adopted this fast food “drive thru” mentality when it comes to spending time with God.  We allow our schedules to become so full and are way too busy that we often fail to plan in cultivating the most important, fulfilling and enriching relationship we could ever hope to have.  Often we make the excuse that we don’t have much time to spend with God so we grab some fast spiritual food for a few minutes whenever we can fit it in to make our consciences feel better.  We can’t expect to survive, thrive and have a healthy strong relationship with our Savior if we only get our “quick fix” for a few minutes a day.  If we are truly panting and thirsting after God, we won’t be satisfied with fast spiritual food.  Many times we grab a quick spiritual snack and believe that it will sustain us but we don’t even realize that we will become so nutritionally deficient that we will eventually starve.

If we truly “know” God then we will be desperate to be consumed with learning more and more about Him. Just as in our earthly relationships, when we desire to have a deep relationship with someone, a few minutes here and there will not be sufficient in allowing us to really know them intimately.  How much time we spend with someone reveals how important they are to us.  

In Psalm 42:1 we see how David describes how we are to yearn for God, “As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you O God.”  Are we filled with the joy of His presence as we soak in His majesty and glory through prayer and reading His Word?  Psalm 16:11 “…You will fill me with the joy of your presence…”  We will be blessed if we hunger and thirst after God and His ways.  We're also told in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled." 

If we claim to have a personal relationship with Christ and we do not hunger and thirst after righteousness and His Word then there is something wrong.  If we claim to be a child of God, yet we are not obsessed with knowing more about Him then we are in danger of drifting away spiritually into apathy. If we are content with spiritual fast food where we try to fit God in somewhere to ease our conscience, do we really value our relationship with Him? If we do not desperately seek Him and hunger and thirst after Him, do we really even “know” Him at all?

 Please understand that I was an apathetic and lukewarm Christian for many years. I spent a few minutes with God every day to check it off my spiritual “to do” list and call myself a good Christian. My unconfessed sin of bitterness, envy, and silent anger caused me to become lukewarm and careless in cultivating my relationship with the Lord.  I John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him should himself also walk just as He (Jesus) walked.”  Sin blinds us and makes us stagnant and causes us to backslide spiritually.  We may simply “appear” to be healthy spiritually by going through the external motions by feeding ourselves spiritual fast food.  Until we confess the sin, our soul will not pant after God and we will never be filled with the joy of His presence.

Jesus Himself longed to spend time with His Father as we’re told in Mark 1:35, “Early in the morning while it is still dark, Jesus went to pray.”  I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t view His time with His Father like we do many times. Jesus was dedicated to His time of prayer and fellowship with God in making it His top priority by getting up while it was still dark outside.  He didn’t rely on spiritual fast food by hurrying through the time He spent communing with His Father so He could move on to more important tasks.  Too often, we have such a carnal attitude and outlook toward the time we spend with God.  Sadly, we fulfill a few minutes of fast devotions out of duty so we can get on with our day.  We may even at times allow excuses to steal that time away altogether.  

Since God got a hold of my heart several years ago, I have noticed a drastic change in how I view my time with my Savior every day.  I long to meet Him daily and look forward to Him teaching me all of the new discoveries He has for me to learn about Himself.  I’m not interested in any more spiritual fast food. I am not saying that we should never ever go through a drive thru whether physically or spiritually, there may be times when some food is better than no food.  Sometimes in an emergency situation we find ourselves thankful to grab any time we can with God, but that should be the exception not the norm.  If it is, our health will definitely begin to suffer.

Our Almighty Creator God and Savior desires for us to pant after Him.  He wants us to hunger and thirst after His ways.  We could spend hours and hours a day for the rest of our earthly lives searching God's precious Word and meeting Him in prayer and we would never even scratch the surface of who God really is. We could never begin to learn in our lifetime how much He truly loves us and be able to fathom ALL of the amazing things He has done for us.  God tells us in Deuteronomy 4:29, "...You will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul."

How about you, have you been content with grabbing a little spiritual fast food lately?  Do you wonder why you're not being filled with the joy of experiencing His awesome presence?  I pray that each of us will hunger and thirst to know Him more deeply and intimately. Life is too short to spend so much time in drive thru’s and trying to survive on fast food.