Yes, The Whopper. And I'm not talking about the candy. This is a little lesson I'm learning in humility and balance.
In preface let me say I've been on journey of learning to eat healthy and studying the organic, gluten-free, non-gmo, vegetarian and vegan ways of eating. I grew up with a mom that educated her kids on healthy eating and did what she could on our budget to feed us organic and healthy foods. {Insert blessings on Her here! Prov.31:28} It used to drive me crazy until I studied a little on my own and began to understand what God intended us to eat when He created our bodies. But lately, the more I learn the more I feel like I can't eat anything until I move to a farm and grow my own everything...which is pretty much impossible I might point out. How does one live in a world of genetically modified, processed, corn-starch-loaded, and preservative-filled foods AND take care of the gift of health God has given them? I'm still wrestling with that one but that is only part of this lesson.
To continue The Whopper story: I've been doing my best to eat in a way that stewards the precious gift of health He has given me. So yes, that means I don't remember when the last time was that I had a Whopper, or any burger for that matter.
Then Thursday happened. I was sitting at my desk working away with my salad in the fridge waiting for me, when my co-worker arrived, Burger King bag in hand. This is where pride comes in. I had some very ungenerous thoughts comparing the bag's contents with my salad.
Then came the fall that inevitably follows pride. My sweet co-worker walked up to my desk and said: "I had a buy one get one free coupon for a Whopper so I brought you one! I hope you don't mind onions." I politely thanked her and let that bag sit on my desk for about 15 minutes while I tried to decide what to do. I thought about making an excuse to go out to my car and putting it in the garbage. I also thought about taking it home and throwing it away. Then I thought, it was really sweet of her to think of me, She doesn't know my eating habits, and she was trying to be a blessing. So the wrestling match ended and I ate all 670 calories of that bleached white bun, genetically modified meat and slimy, nutrition-depleted lettuce, all covered in mayo. {That is still really hard to admit.}
After I ate it, I felt horrible both physically and emotionally. "I am a failure and a hypocrite! I just ate the epitome of everything wrong with American food!" This was my pride talking. But I still didn't see it until I went to God to repent for eating that stuff. It was like He smiled at me and said "the only one holding this over your head is you, beloved." Then it hit me. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 when He said:
"For in the way you judge, you will be judged..."
I was holding the world around me to an impossible standard, thinking that I had it all figured out & I was the only one eating "right". But when I held myself to the same impossible standard, of course I didn't measure up! So I repented of my pride instead of The Whopper.
I still don't know what the right thing to do was in that situation. I still regret eating it because of the stomach and headache I had the rest of the afternoon. But God used that Whopper to convict my heart and bring me to a place of humility where He can work with me. Psalm 25:9 says "...{God} teaches the humble His way." I guess that is my answer; remain humble and let Him teach me what to eat and what not to eat.
