Rabbit Food

I get it. I get it.  We need to eat healthy, exercise, control our calorie intake, fat intake, carb intake, and sugar intake.  At the same time, we need to up the ante on our fiber intake and protein intake. Blah blah blah blah. Focusing on health is important.  While I get it…it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.  Sometimes I feel like I have made it through the day without eating anything other than rabbit food.  My wife scoops out a half cup of fiber cereal for me in the morning. While she tells me that it is nutritious, delicious, and satisfying, my mouth tells me that I am eating rabbit pellets. Then for lunch….I have the amazing opportunity to choose whether my salad should be made from romaine lettuce or from iceberg lettuce.  OOOOOh….the anticipation is killing me.  I guess I will go with romaine….unless I am at a fancy restaurant and I can choose “le iceberg wedge.” Simply put….more rabbit food.  And for dinner, we round off the day with a teeny tiny piece of protein and vegetables.  Not the good vegetables like macaroni & cheese/ cornbread and white beans…but the bad kind of vegetables….broccoli, carrots, spinach…you guessed it…..more rabbit food.  Then if I am lucky…really lucky…maybe I can squeeze in a piece of fruit or more rabbit pellets for a late night snack.  I AM BORED WITH EATING HEALTHY!!!!!!   

So bored in fact….that I have stared at the menu at least 5 times.  “What menu?” you ask.  The menu for one of the most amazing restaurants on the planet.  The menu that I will be ordering from at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night in Orlando, Florida.  The waiter will not have to wait one second for me to ponder.  I plan on walking in the door, past the little lady at the counter who will attempt making me wait even though I have reservations.  I will walk straight to my table, grab the waiter by his collar (in a Christian sort of way) and state…..  “I would like an un-sweet tea please…for appetizer I will be eating Caramelized Crab & Shrimp Stuffed Mushrooms with roasted garlic and Parmesan cheese and for my entrée I will be having Caramelized Sea Scallops grilled and served with sun-dried tomato pearl pasta and roasted asparagus. Thank you.” (Note to self:  Do not get so excited that you leave wife in car.)

I will definitely not be bored during this meal….as you can tell.  There is something ironic about this though….because this restaurant that has me salivating five days before my meal is actually a restaurant built around HEALTHY food.  According to them, their menu is seasonally inspired with the fresh appeal of a farmer’s market.  Their desire is for their guests to enjoy the complete dining experience while still feeling good about themselves and their dining choices.  In fact, they make a promise that nothing on their menu is over 475 calories.  The result is great tasting food that just happens to be good for you.  Ironic….I am simply bored with eating healthy.  They are quite inspired by cooking healthy…….and because of THEIR excitement and investment…..I have become extremely excited about eating their healthy food.  

As I reflect on the irony of the situation…my excitement about eating healthy food…their healthy food…I realize that my boredom doesn’t lie in eating healthy food. My boredom lies in my lack of investment in preparing healthy food.  I am just  not invested enough, inspired enough, or intentional enough in preparing what I eat.  The restaurant’s desire to cook great food and to be excited about it changed everything.  Like most things in life…it’s not what I am getting out of it that is the problem….it’s what I am putting into it.  Ouch!!!!!

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I can see it on their faces…..Christians, church folk, people who have simply become bored with their relationship with God.  Just like my attitude towards healthy food….they know it’s good for them, they do what’s good for them, but at the end of the day…they feel like they walk away bored because their heart simply wasn’t  in it.  That’s the point….their heart simply isn’t in it.  It’s not God who is boring.  It’s not the fruits of their faith. .  It’s not the radical nature of taking up the cross.  There is absolutely NOTHING boring about those things. The reason they are bored is the reason I was bored.  They aren’t putting anything into it…simply judging what they are getting out of it. They are not invested enough, inspired enough or intentional enough with their grace walk. They aren’t bored, they are simply boring. The desire to do what is right because God said so won’t lead us to the point of salivation.  The desire to do what’s right because it is what we are passionate about will.  

May we recognize the joy and passion that comes from doing what is right in the sight of God.  May we love Christ.  May we adore Him.  May we allow our passion for His mind and His ways to infiltrate our mind and our ways to the extent that it changes our attitude, our heart, and inevitably our actions..  May we stop blaming God for being boring and may we realize that we are the cause of our apathy…not Him. May we stop measuring output and may we start focusing on our input.  May we invest with joy in the Kingdom. May we become so invested, so inspired, so intentional and so fired up living the Christian life that we have to remind ourselves not to leave the wife in the car. 

How well God must like you— you don't hang out at Sin Saloon,
you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College. 
Instead you thrill to God's Word, 
you chew on Scripture day and night. 
You're a tree replanted in Eden, 
bearing fresh fruit every month, 
Never dropping a leaf, 
always in blossom 
Psalm 1:1-3 (The Message Paraphrase)