Yesterday, we began the celebration of Advent at our church. Hopefully, this year’s celebration will be a little less eventful than last year.  One week, while I was preaching, the wax-dripping Advent candle set fire to the artificial greenery surrounding it.  Thankfully, one of our men sitting near the front moved quickly to extinguish the blaze. Well, “quickly” and “blaze” may both be an exaggeration.

I was happy for at least two things.  I was happy to be able to say that at least for a few seconds our church was on fire. Moreover, I was happy that the flame did not catch the attention of the smoke detector. Had that happened, our sprinkler system would have deployed and everyone in attendance would’ve suddenly been Methodist by baptism. 

My favorite sport, baseball, is embroiled in a bit of a rules controversy these days.  Several players have accused a former team of going beyond conventional means to steal opponents signs. 

Each team has elaborate systems of signs the players use to communicate strategy with each other.  The accusers claim their former team used hidden cameras to eavesdrop on signs.  Then, they communicated to team mates what their opponents planned to do.  Sign stealing has always been part of baseball, but always through more natural means.

These allegations cast dispersion on the accomplishments of some gifted athletes on the accused team.  Some may attribute guilt by association to players who may not have participated in the alleged cheating. 

Sign Stealing and Life

Athletes have long had the reputation of rule benders.  In fact, some would say, “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying.”  Participants want to see how far they can push the envelope before someone catches them.

With all of the Christmas celebrating taking place, you may have not have noticed something.  It easily gets lost in the shuffle, but this is also the season for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Giving thanks should come before getting more.

I recently paid my doctor’s office to tell me I am overweight and out of shape.  I shudder to think how much they would’ve charged to tell me something I didn’t already know.  Two factors – one an abundance the other a dearth – have contributed to my sad physical condition.

First, the dearth.  I do not get enough exercise.  I like to walk. But since daylight hours are at a minimum now, I don’t seem to be able to find an illuminated time.

But the greatest contributing factor is my diet.  I am diabetic.  I’m supposed to watch my carb intake.  And I do.  I watch them go from my hands into my mouth.  As a result, my blood work looks like the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I am in a bull market when it comes to consumption.

The Curse of Abundance

Recently, social media has buzzed with the debate over Chick-fil-a’s decision to change the way they corporately donate to charity.  I do not wish to add my 2 cents worth.  In fact, mine is only worth about ½ cent. 

People are taking sides with a passion usually reserved for college football.  I guess people won’t be calling it “the Lord’s chicken” anymore.  Thankfully.  That 3^rd commandment takes a beating some times. Personally, I think they made their biggest mistake when they discontinued their cole slaw.

I wonder if Russian collusion is at the heart of this.  Maybe Russian interests hold investment in Popeye’s or Zaxby’s and they are trying to bring CFA down.  I wonder what the Russians could do for my A1c and Triglycerides? Hmm.

It occurred to me, however, that our debate over a fast food restaurant indicates we are incredibly spoiled.  We can go to a myriad of places where someone will prepare delicious food for us.  We don’t have to procure the ingredients or cook the food.  They do that for us.  And they let us “have it our way” while telling us it is their “pleasure.”

What we fail to realize is that 1 out of 9 people in the world do not get enough food to lead a healthy life.  Moreover, poor nutrition causes the death of 45% of children under 5 around the world. 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.¹

I recently informally polled my Facebook friends asking what is the most important invention in history. I received a lot of good answers.  While technically not an invention, several mentioned electricity.  That discovery and the ability to harness it have produced great progress for our lives.

Still others mentioned conveniences like air conditioning and indoor plumbing.  Those too, especially air conditioning in the South, have become near necessities.  Some of my most practical friends cited the flushable toilet and toilet paper as the most important inventions.  I find it difficult to argue with them on that invention.

My Opinion

I, along with several others, believe the printing press is the most important invention in history.  While other crude movable type machines were in existence, Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the first printing press. 

Those who study crowd dynamics tell us that people are most comfortable sitting in a crowd that is between 60-80% of seating capacity.  Why would anyone decide to study such things as the optimal percentage of attendance to number of available seats?  Do you go to college to get a degree in seating?  I can hear someone how boast, “I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Seating.  I’m not working on my PhD dissertation titled The Sardine Syndrome: The Intrapersonal Relationships Between Rear End Proximity and Event Attendance.’”

My guess is there is always that one math geek in the Sociology Department who wants to show off.  Math people are that way.  They show off.  They do so because they can. The rest of us are just glad we can count to ten.

I really don’t care for sporks.  I mean, really, is it a fork?  Or a spoon?  Come on, be one or the other.  

According to New York Times author Jessica Gross, the utensil we call a “spork” shows up way back in medieval times.  She didn’t indicate that it was a middle ages torture device.  But I have my suspicions that it was.  By the 1800s, this hybrid utensil was used for eating things from turtles to ice cream.(1)

The Van Brode Milling Company received the first official patent for the spork in 1970.  Consequently, KFC made the spork famous. They abandoned the patent – probably due to psychological meltdown from trying to use it.  A UK company picked up the patent and took sporks global.(2)

Today, I did battle with a three-piece spicy at Popeye’s.  I prevailed, but no thanks to the spork.  

When Christians Are Sporks

While reflecting on my lunchtime battle, I came to realize who we Jesus-followers can be like a spork sometimes. 

Do you remember your first-love?  Maybe it was a kindergarten classmate or a middle school crush.  Perhaps yours was a high school sweetheart. For some, it doesn’t come until adulthood.  What about you?  

The word “first” can have two meanings: there is first in chronology, and there is first in priority. I don’t remember my chronological first love because of the supremacy of the love I have for my wife. Those feelings that I may have thought were love are now overshadowed by what I know as true love.

God and First-Love

Most of us can list a variety of things that we loved chronologically before we loved God.  But where does God currently stand on our priority list?  For most of us the problem is not that we don’t love God but that we don’t love God FIRST.

Consider the church at Ephesus established by Paul during his second missionary tour.  The church held a special place in his heart and it became an important part of early church history.  

In his letter to the Ephesus church, Paul commended them for their “incorruptible love for Jesus.”  But some 30 years later, Jesus dictated a letter to them through the Apostle John.  We find that letter in Revelation 2:1-7.  

He commended them for doing a lot of good things (vs. 2-3), but had a very serious charge against them.  In verse 4, Jesus chastises them for leaving their “first-love.”  It’s not that they didn’t love Him and do good things for Him, but they didn’t love Him pre-eminently.  They didn’t love Him the way they used to love Him.