Good Eats

Today Stephanie, Elijah, and I went to a family reunion. Except for my parents, we are so distantly connected to anyone else there, that we can scarcely be called relatives. But regardless of distance in blood lines, the event is one of the best Sunday lunches we have all year. Rows and rows of home cooked dishes and deserts, as well as the staple box of Kentucky fried chicken. I personally love buffets, mainly due to the fact I love variety. With a buffet you can have a little of everything, and avoid the half-an-hour of indecision while perusing a menu (especially those with pictures).

But there’s something to be said of this eat-out culture. Whether all-you-can-eat or fix-to-order, we have shied from a home cooked meal that we all share in, and have gravitated towards a pick-and-choose lifestyle. Forget about green beans and spinach that mom used to make, I just want a baked potato and some macaroni and cheese (which is a vegetable in the south). Why must I learn to appreciate what you like when I can choose my own meal?

I wonder if that is now the way this culture approaches God and religion. Forget about the carefully prepared doctrines and disciplines served to us from a generation past, I want the flexibility of my own custom spirituality buffet. Leave out the monotonous daily scripture devotions; I prefer to just soak God up through spontaneous meditation. I don’t like a God of righteousness that sometimes leaves my stomach upset; I’ll just take a God of love that gratifies my sweet tooth.

I keep concluding that so many “Christians” today have left their parents table with a bad taste in their mouth. But instead of seasoning the blandness of the traditions, they’ve abandoned wholesome nutrition altogether and chosen to get their spiritual food from a misguided generation’s to-go menu.