Penny Wise

Attractive wrapper, major brand, conveniently placed at the aisle’s end, big retailer, product I needed; it had it all going, so I bought the load of bread. It did look a liiiittle bit dark, but I ignored that initial impression because I wanted to. No way it could be on the shelf and not be edible. The dark crust was just a different baking technique…it was sure to be quite tasty.

Wrong.

The loaf of bread went home with me, sat on my shelf a few days, and then I ate a slice. It was dry! But hey, I paid good money for that bread, so later on I ate some more. And had a sandwich with a couple more slices a few days later. Fresh sawdust would have been moister!

And here is the sad part. While I am force feeding myself this over cooked and unappealing product, I have another loaf of bread in the house. It is not dry, it is being passed over, perfectly good bread, large multi-grain loaf, aging unattended and unenjoyed while I am eating an unacceptable and unattractive item that belongs in the garbage!

Wrong.

I woke up slow that week. But I did wake up. I tossed the inferior bread in the trash. And the first slice of the fresh loaf tasted soooo gooood!

Do I do this in other areas of my life? Do we? I think so. We have better options already on the shelf, available with minimal effort, and we keep on munching on something else simply because we have made some previous small investment in it.

Wrong.

I am thinking about habits of thought and attitude. We are used to approaching the situation a certain way. Deviation isn’t required, but a small change would really make a big difference. Do we keep eating from the first loaf or do we toss it away for a new one?

So much of what Jesus offers in my relationship with him is currently on the shelf. It is not a huge endeavor to make the switch, but I will have to make the choice and give up on the old stuff. I truly should make a clean break with the old and replace it with the new. Chewing on a slice from the dry loaf and the moist loaf at the same time would be

Wrong.

Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
December 2, 2008