Filet-of-Fish and Mud Pies...

I am a huge fan of coupons! (Some will tell you that I am just plain cheap…but I insist I’m just being a “good steward”!) Every once in a while, McDonald’s mails out these little coupon books full of mostly Buy 1-Get 1 deals. I use those with either the boys or with my friend Martha. There is one coupon though, for a $1.50 filet-of-fish sandwich. Martha and the boys don’t like those, so I’m always the one who uses that coupon. This past Monday, I had to go to my children’s school which is in Rockwell about 30 minutes away. Their school gets out at 3. I had a shift at my part-time job at Chick-fil-A in Concord that started at 4 (about 15 minutes from my house in the other direction – 45 minutes from Rockwell.) I decided it would make more sense for me to change into my Chick-fil-A clothes before heading to Rockwell so that I could save time in that hour between 3 and 4. I got to Rockwell a little early, I hadn’t eaten lunch, and those McDonald’s coupons were on my mind. So I walked into the McDonald’s in Rockwell and ordered my $1.50 sandwich. There was a little boy there – maybe 6 or 7 – who kept staring at me. I was almost to the point of feeling uncomfortable when he walked up to me – a total stranger – and said, “What are you doing here?” Thinking he had me confused with someone else, I said, “Excuse me?” He asked again, “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you get food at Chick-fil-A?” Then I realized I had on my uniform, and that probably in his mind (and everyone else’s) why on earth would someone who had access to Chick-fil-A choose to eat McDonald’s instead? I have to admit, he had a valid point - especially considering what I had ordered!  I muttered something back about having my coupon and being hungry now and not wanting to wait an hour… when it dawned on me… I do the same thing spiritually. With all of the promises that God has given in His Word, and all of the spiritual riches that He has to offer me, so often, I settle for the cheap and now. I’m not willing to wait for what’s better. He says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you…” but I want them now. So I try to add them myself. My friend Pammy used to call it “sacrificing the eternal on the altar of the immediate.” And it happens all the time. Young people give into sexual temptations with each other because “they are hungry now” and they don’t want to wait for that something better that God has for them. Many of us choose wrong spouses, wrong colleges, wrong careers – all the time thinking, “but I am hungry now…” and “God would want me to be happy, right?” How foolish. C.S. Lewis wrote about this – and it’s one of my favorite chapters – in his book The Weight of Glory. He said, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." How many times have I settled for mud pies? Whether I call it a mud pie or a filet-of-fish, the truth is – I too often fill my life with things that have no significant value. I settle for what I can do for myself instead of waiting for God’s best. Is there anything wrong with a cheap sandwich? Not in itself, no…. But it wasn’t the best option I had. I could have waited about an hour and had something much more delicious – and probably better for me! I settled. And I’m not the only one. We read in Scripture about people who did the same thing – Adam and Eve, Lot’s daughters, Esau and his birthright, David and Bathsheba… I think it’s one of Satan’s most useful tools – to convince us that God’s best is not worth waiting for. We can satisfy that appetite ourselves. I think about that little boy asking, “What are you doing here?” I wonder how often God wants to ask us the same thing. As we go around trying to satisfy ourselves, does He not wonder, “What are you doing here? You are My child, and I have so much to offer you.” He sees His people in that bar… or that club… or that bedroom…or at that job… or in front of the computer or televisión… or wherever it is, and He says, “What are you doing here?” No more mud pies or fish sandwiches for me – I am done! I want to be willing to wait…