A Gluttonous Society

Another word that comes to mind along with gluttony is overindulgence. Have you ever over indulged on something in your life? How many of us has had some type of food in front of us that we just couldn't/didn't want to stop eating it when we reached full capacity several bites ago. I'm sure we all have said "I can't stop eating this."  I have and it's because either I don't eat that particular kind of food very often and I wanted every piece of it or if it's something like pizza where I don't ever feel full no matter how much I eat. I literally can eat a crap load of pizza (really too embarassing to put specific amounts here).  What about shopping?  I LOVE to shop.  I used to love it so much that I wanted to be a buyer for Target.  Matter of fact, I used to fly to New York once a year to shop for three days. I never overinduldged.  I bought clearance everything.  Yeah right!  Just the shear act of buying a plane ticket to shop (in my life) was overindulding and I hadn't even step foot outside the door yet.  Have you ever over indulged on an item of clothing, perfume, purse, shoes? Yep, I overindulged the whole trip. Honestly, when I think of either areas of my life I feel sick to my stomach. I feel sick of all that waste.

You know what's even worse than actually 'doing' the overindulging? Not batting an eye about it. No moral flags being waved anywhere in my mind. I never even had the tiniest ounce of thought in my small pea brained mind that either was an unnecessary act. To think I could potentially save someone’s life, feed a family of four for months, or help my struggling neighbor make a house payment with the money that I spent on the flight alone. I had the attitude, "I want it and I will have it." How many of us have bought the high end model car with the thought "I've worked hard for this so I deserve it." (Jeeze-O! I have to stop with the examples.) My life has had its far share of gluttony. I would have to confess to God for the rest of my life on all my life's selfishness. My stomach feels sick thinking about it all. Not only do I feel sick about overindulging but I feel as though I’ve had massive blinders on to all the needs of the world. Actually I have a name for those blinders. I call them me`goggles (pronounced me goggles but said real fast together: megoggles). I used to get out of bed every day walk into my life with me`goggles. It was me this. Me that. Me. Me. Me. Me`goggles are very tricky. You are born into this world with them. Don't believe me?  Walk into a room full of toddlers.  It comes naturally for us to want it all or want what others have, me`goggles.They become such a part of who you are that you can't feel them on your eyes. Matter of fact, they never break or scratch. You, in your physical self, can't remove them. Only person who has the kind of strength to remove is God.

I am just one person living in this society. Do you know how many others out there that have me`goggles on and don’t realize it? That's what scary. We as a nation over eat, over spend, over educate (getting too caught up in all the titles), and over work ourselves. We are vastly becoming a gluttonous nation. Quite frankly we are already there. Not only is this happening but on top of our sins we are slowly stripping out every ounce of God that our country was founded on. We started on this journey with God and we are slowly leaving his laws and teachings out. We are crazy if to think God has not blessed our nation and many others. He has and in big ways. We have become so blessed that we no longer realize how overindulged our lives truly are. We have become somewhat comfortable with that and want more for ourselves. Don't misunderstand me. Everyone is different hands and feet for God. If you give back to God and to your neighbors as Jesus and his apostles teach us then you are one step in the right direction. Do you truly give? Do you give with a joyful heart? Lift up your neighbor? Are we doing all that we can each and every day? Do you attempt to make a difference with what lies ahead of you at the grocery store or in your community? We are each individuals. If we each do our part in giving then as a society we can make huge dents in the sufferings many of our neighbors face today…not tomorrow.
A couple of verses that help remove my me'googles to replace them with Jesus goggles are:

          • 1 Corinthians 8:8-9 - "I am not commanding you to give. But I want to see if your love is true by comparing you with others that really want to help. You know that Christ was rich but for you He became poor so that by His becoming poor you might become rich."

          • 1 Corinthians 8:13 - "We do not want you to have troubles while other people are at ease, but we want everything to be equal. At this time you have plenty. What you have can help others who are in need. Then later, when they have plenty, they can help you when you are in need, and all will be equal. As it is written in scriptures, "The person who gathered more did not have too much, nor did the person who gathered less have too little."

I truly don’t want to be a part of or help contribute to gluttony. I want the world to be a better place for myself, my children and your family. I have not perfected my giving or overinduldging.  I'm still learning lots about it. However, each day I try to give something even if it is an encouraging phone call or praise to someone else who did make a difference.  How can you put the spirit of God back into your life? What can you give today? What can you cut back on to help make a difference somewhere else? Challenge yourself. You'll be surprised by His blessings!