Are You a Junk Food Junkie?

I think I sat here two full minutes, staring at a blank text box; I felt I needed to write something, but what? After all, it probably does more good for my mental processes than it does for your eternal value. Still, time ticks by and the text box is not filling up with anything important. It must be all that pizza I ate this week.

Yes, I can blame it on pizza. My wife is somewhere in North America, taking care of our daughter, son-in-law, and their new baby. I am somewhere in South America, whiling away my Saturday after three consecutive days of pizza. Yes, pizza. After all, I have a 15-year-old daughter who needed to eat, too. Otherwise, it may have been peanut butter imported by the last volunteers who came to see us.

But how could something that tastes so good be so bad for your thinking process? Or your motivation? Answer: GREASE. It's not the cheese; it's the grease! It wasn't the tomato sauce; it was the grease! All that pepperoni was loaded with the stuff. And this pizza was loaded with pepperoni. The truth is, it's junk.

I purged my guilty conscience yesterday when I went out to buy groceries to feed my daughter and me. I stopped and ate a delicious salad. It had stuff in it from every major food group. That made me feel better. It felt so good I didn't mind stopping by the cinnamon roll place and picking up some of those.

That wasn't my tongue you saw in my cheek; it was a piece of a cinnamon roll!

I had to stop and admit it. I love junk food. Junk food producers love me, too. Mark Lowry sang a sarcastic song one time: "I can eat it all!" Sing it, Mark!

Let me get somewhat serious for a minute. Before any nutrition fanatics go for my juglar, you should know my blood will glob out; it won't flow. Seriously, I have a point to this.

What we put in our bodies has its impact, for good or for bad. That is equally true about what we put into our souls. Your soul is the focal point for your mind, will, and emotions. If you feed the mind with meaningless trivia and nothing more, then you deprive yourself of greater things. Our kids once imbibed on television; now it's the computer. There is little difference, in my opinion, as to the ultimate outcome of mindless entertainment. It starves your spirit and feeds junk into your mind.

It is in your soul that the thing called "flesh" resides. "Flesh" is what makes sin so fun. "Flesh" is what makes us brag when we blast another person (believer or not). "Flesh" is what makes us brag about what we did before we knew Jesus; or what we do now. "Flesh" is what makes us pleased with our spiritual accomplishments.

And the Flesh craves "food." Not that kind! Though it could be physical food. Some people I know are fat because they crave to an excess the food God intended to be both sustaining and pleasurable. But the food the Flesh wants is that food that feeds its passion and ways. So Flesh tells your mind what it wants; your mind tells your emotions; your will then becomes the key. To feed the Flesh, or not to feed the Flesh.

Sometimes we feed the Flesh, feel guilty, and then purge our consciences by some so-called spiritual thing. We pray. We read our Bibles. We attend church services. We help someone. We think about God for ten minutes. And then we go back to our feeding frenzy.

The Holy Spirit has a really good plan regarding the Flesh. Kill it! Deny yourself, take up your cross DAILY, and follow Jesus. If you die to the Flesh, your perspective begins to change. Paul said he died daily.

So what do you plan to feed on this week? Will it be true spiritual nourishment? Or will it be junk food?

Kevin,
Somewhere in South America