“He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man… Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the King’s belly… Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.”  [Judges 3:17,21, 22b]

Obesity was a part of life long before KFC turned the meat into buns. But their “sandwich” will certainly not help our waistlines (though I can not imagine anyone would choose to eat it—seriously, just duct tape it to a fat zone). But adding chunk seems to be part of the food industry’s business model. Take the local Cold Stone’s pricing. Rather than charge more for a large, the “Like It” (5oz) is the same price as the “Gotta Have It” (12oz).** This makes no sense to me and I always get the big one—whether I need it or not. Which leaves me with what Dad calls pancake fever (the man can not resist my moms pancakes and always ends up gorging and in the bathroom!). So the food industry helps us grow wider—which means we eat more of their food. And this churns the whole economy, since we have to buy new clothes (the old ones “must have shrunk in the laundry”), we feel more comfortable in a SUV than a compact… Really eating meat buns is the best way to get out of this recession!

But at home, I watch Granny drop sticks of butter into her mashed potatoes and I realize, maybe food is not the problem. Maybe the ever increasing waistline has more to do with me sitting here and typing… again. Not that I am lazy, at least by today’s standards. And yet, compared to yesterday’s generation… well, my temperature controlled life—is one of ease.

And this is where we connect to our faith. Alex and I just started a new book, A Call to Die by David Nasser (barely started, so I will not even recommend it beyond the forward). He writes in the introduction, “many had told me that a church generation that can not be motivated to read a one-page-a-day devotional, was sure to reject this intense devotional book.” Of course I knew the Christian book stores were over stocked with books that lead to your best life now, rather than any call radical commitment. Still, I always considered this the fault of business minded folk, rather than the church. But then the book asked me to fast as I read the forty days of devotions and I worried… Maybe there is a cliff-notes—a drive thru version that I could read?…

**On Cold Stone, Why do they have the same price for every size? First, it is not every Cold Stone, the one in Augusta is the only one I have seen like this (and we frequent ice cream places – which makes my mom proud!). But in some ways, the fact that Augusta may be the only one, makes it even more strange. From an economic perspective it seems to make no sense, unless you believe my silly rational above (that increase chunkiness leads to increased spending). The only thought that comes to mind is that this is a study on people’s ability to resist temptation… which means I have failed… just like a lab mouse. ~ If you have other ideas I would love to hear them!