Saturday, December 03, 2005

fresh flowers for December 3

From Hot Chocolate to Hot Water
copyright 2005, lani wiens
a fresh flowers original


“…but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:14, 15)

Hot Chocolate. That’s what I wanted the other night. Too bad for me the only hot chocolate we had in the house was the kind you have to mix with milk. Pasteurized milk and me do not have a very good relationship, especially since I’ve been pregnant. But I was tempted, dragged away and enticed. My desire was conceived and I didn’t care what I would suffer afterwards I carried on to the sin part and made that hot chocolate, drank it down and enjoyed every lovely chocolaty mouthful that went across my tongue.

There was no immediate reaction. “Ha ha,” I thought to myself, “no problem, it will be different this time.” Boy was I wrong! And while I didn’t die and the reaction didn’t make me wish I was dead I realized full well that I had sinned against my own body. Certainly no one else was affected by my transgression, except that my husband had to put up with a miserable wife for an evening and night. It was even more foolhardy considering I was already sick with the flu and a cold and this just exacerbated that problem. I was miserable. The only thing I could do from then on was to let the reaction run its course and beg my body’s forgiveness, promising myself NOT to do that again.

It’s hard sometimes to say no to sin. Especially when it looks like a cup of hot chocolate. Smells good, tastes good, doesn’t look particularly like an evil desire at all. But we all know, way down deep that we have these little sins that carry us away without a thought. Okay, I have to admit there was a lot of thought put into my sin. I knew full well that it was a bad idea and shouldn’t do it. The problem was, I didn’t care, I was after that warm chocolate going down my throat. I was jealous of the 101 cups of hot chocolate I’d made my kids and watched them enjoy. I wanted it and the end result didn’t matter. When we take a look at James 1 we see what the result of even this little transgression is – death. Your death might look different than mine did but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Fortunately for my family, this particular death affected only me, good thing that it wasn’t alcohol I craved or cigarettes or the need for a cat in the house – any of those would have put my unborn baby, myself and my kids in certain danger.

The good news is that God also gave us 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man (hot chocolate) and God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear (it wasn’t that truly decadent triple chocolate blend from the Victorian Epicure party), but with the temptation will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (yeah for apple cider, instant hot chocolate and non-pasteurized milk, apparently I am also supposed to be thankful for soy milk but I haven’t quite made it that far yet – can’t quite bring myself to pay the exorbitant price for something I may detest).”

Go and sin no more.

2 comments:

Lani - the flowerlady said...

actually it's the milk that's the problem , not the the chocolate!!!! Unless of course it was milk chocolate......oh well, there's always dark!!!

Nin said...

wow! Preach it sister! Totally, how many times do we say, it'll be different 'this' time, only to end up in the same boat we've found ourselves in the past. It's the thought of "Maybe I won't get caught this time", because as you knew, your body doesn't agree with the milk, but maybe just maybe, your body would ignore it, overlook it.
I know for me I think that I'll get away with things if I try to make up for them later, but it never happens that way. The consequences never change. (this is what Carbear and I have been telling our kids, even after you're sorry, the consequence is still the same). I'm sure you were sorry after your tummy hurt like heck, but that sorry did nothing for the tummy ache. Why don't we learn? God is so much bigger than our fleshly desires, if only we saw Him for who He is, and who we are in Him. But I guess, if we could see that.....we'd be in heaven.