"It's the rare human who doesn't overdo it at a buffet" Carolyn Hax
Carolyn Hax is an advice columnist. I read her on line through the Washington Post. This is an example of some of her wisdom: short, to the point, and right on. It is easy to recognize my own humanity in many of her observations. I couldn't resist this one.
As a preacher, I began thinking about all the ways we humans grab for ourselves everything within arms reach. At any potluck you can watch as folks fill their plates with 3 kinds of pasta, two vegetables, potatoes, rolls, meat and that's before they get to the dessert table. They can't eat it all. They won't eat it all. But they will do it every time. Too much - and just because its there. Sure they will explain that they want a little taste of everything - just a little here and a little there, but they don't take just a little. Oh no, it's a whole spoonful of whatever is offered.
Overdo at a buffet and you are uncomfortable for hours afterwards, and working off the extra calories into the next week. And yet It's the rare human who doesn't overdo it at a buffet.
I'm not talking just about temptation, although that is a part of it. Nor am I talking just about cumulative effects of questionable habits. It's not even just about how dense we can be and slow to learn from the past. At some level, that buffet table is about our eternal focus on the ME. We want to have it all even when having it all will cost us dearly in the long run. A buffet table is the perfect place to run wild because there is no one there to tell us No! We can take whatever we want and as much as we want. And. We. Do.
It's the rare human who doesn't overdo it at a buffet.
What a perfect example of the inherent flaw within us. When faced with apple pie, cookies, mousse and brownies, we don't want to choose. We want it all. And if we can get away with it, we will take it all.
You can see why Jesus had to come. To save us from ourselves. And the dessert table.
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