GLUTTONY

      The scene is set. Cake, pie, cookies, and yes, doughnuts, are spread on the folding table a respectful distance from the potluck's main dishes. But everyone knows it's there, waiting, enticing. We pay healthful homage to the salads, the meat loafs, the green bean casseroles and other "good stuff." But we most certainly leave room for dessert.
      Later, after we've done more than our part to prevent the sin of wasted food--and dessert--we suffer guilt pangs, if not stomach aches, from our indiscretion. And what better to salve the guilt of stupid eating, but more stupid eating. It's a viscous cycle that demonstrates, not our lack of self-control, but our lack of self-love.
      We have no business hating one for whom Jesus loved enough to die. That includes ourselves, no matter how many doughnuts we cram into our faces. But loving ourselves doesn't include excusing our sin.
      How often have I witnessed people--myself included--bingeing on sweets, despite realizing it is bad for us? It may not be smoking, drinking, or fornicating, but it still damages the temple of God's Spirit. Is a sin less a sin because "everybody" is doing it? Are we who belong to God, who have His Holy Spirit within us, still slaves to sin? Can we rightly excuse our sinful behavior by calling it a compulsion? We need to let God open our eyes so we can see gluttony, not as a socially acceptable fault, but as the sin it is, and repent of it just like any other sin.