My kids love to hear stories about my younger days and a few weeks ago I recalled one from my college days. It went something like this...
"After I hurt my knee, I rehabbed and came back to play basketball, but things were never the same. Mommy just wasn't as fast as I used to be and it was just different so I decided the next year I wasn't going to be on the team anymore. But Antonio, a friend who played on the men's team didn't agree with my decision and had this to say, "Girl, you can handle the rock. You gotta play the game. What are you going to do? I know, you're just going to sit around, eat Twinkies and get fat!!"
The kids thought that was hilarious!! They also wondered what Twinkies were and one of them wondered, "did you get fat Mom?"
I explained what Twinkies were, shared about my experience with the intramural team and assured them how looking back this was clearly part of God's plan. We then moved on with our day with me thinking the Twinkie story was part of my past once again.
That was true until this past Saturday when my 4 year old and I were in the grocery story when something that looked like the Twinkies I had described caught her eye.
She pointed to the box and said, "Mom, are these those things that boy thought would make you fat??"
Though the box was labeled "Cloud Cakes" they were the same yellow, creme filled snack Antonio was referring to, so I said, "Yes!!"
She then gets a smile and asks, "Can we buy some?" I notice they're on sale, tell her to put one in the cart and we move on.
Yesterday I looked at the box sitting on our counter and had a new thought. Actually I asked myself a question, "Spiritually have I been sitting around, eating Twinkies and getting fat?"
Honestly that thought came from nowhere and in a way it hurt. But I know where it came from and really conviction is a good thing!!
Just last Monday, I posted a bit about enjoying a retreat a year ago I had been a part of and how that's been hard at times. Last January when I took that step, I had plans to use the time I would have been attending meetings to work on the new thing God had put on my heart. Well let's just say my intentions were good, my follow through not so much.
Rather than allowing me to stay there and beat myself up for failing once again, God gave me grace and reminded me of the work He's done through me. He also took me back to my college days and how walking away from basketball was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. At the time I didn't know it, but He was asking me to walk away from something I LOVED in order to find something that was so much better!! (And someone who would LOVE me back!)
Those memories excite me to let go and look forward to what is to come. And these thoughts remind me of this passage, “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:34-38)
Friends, Jesus wasn't concerned with his meal for the day, so I know He wasn't sitting around eating Twinkies!! As we seek and serve Him we shouldn't either!! Today I challenge you to ask yourself, "Spiritually are you eating Twinkies?"
