The Popcorn Is A Lie

Jeremiah : -- "Will you indeed be to me like a deceptive stream with water that is unreliable?"

 

I look at my watch again only to discover that the numbers haven't changed all that much since the last time I checked it.  My stomach lets out this rather loud complaint that actually motivates the lucky few who share this waiting room with me to turn their heads and look in my direction. Feeling my ears and cheeks turn a bright red from the unwanted attention,  I get up from the luxury of the plastic bucket seat bolted to the wall and make my way over to the "snack" counter.

One of the least favorite things on my to do list is get the oil changed in the car.  ...for SOOOOO many reasons.  It never takes the short and painless fifteen minutes that they advertise and because I'm a female, the powers that be behind the oil-streaked glass window of the workshop assume I'm an idiot and don't know anything about what the car really needs. [I love the look on their faces when I volley their own terminology back at them to inform them that the only thing I want is an oil change because that IS the only thing the vehicle needs].

While I have once again completely underestimated the amount of time required to get this task ticked off my list....it's past lunch and my stomach is letting everybody know it.

...so back to the "snack" counter, I pass up the opportunity to have a nice luke-warm cup of, the unidentifiable stuff in the "coffee" pot, I see the bright red and white pop corn machine and think BINGO!  Don't mind if I do.  I open the door, fill up a small paper bag and breath in the deep, buttery aroma of white fluffy kernels.  My mouth starts to water and I place a choice piece on my tongue.

Ummm. Gross.  I grew up in a third world country eating all kinds of adventurous things and I STILL cannot force myself to swallow this....this....thing in my mouth.  Man, I really don't want to gag in front of all these nice people so I escape into the nightmare they call a ladies room and spit in the trash.  Wow...that was horrible.

I go back to the waiting room sans popcorn bag and sit back down.  I look at the machine again.  Funny it LOOKS like a popcorn machine.  The light inside SEEMS to emanate heat and the sign on the outside even says "Fresh Popcorn"...but trust me, the stuff inside isn't hot and by no stretch of any imagination anywhere close to being fresh.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's actually popcorn.  Maybe it's that stuff they pack around breakable stuff to keep it from being damaged when shipped.

I'll just bare with the growling of my stomach.

I wonder....how many of us resemble the deceptive popcorn?  Do I put on nice clothes, get my hair and make up just right to sit in Sunday service and sing Praises, read Scripture, and pray with fellow Christians only to act differently through out the week?  Do I LOOK like a Christian but somehow not exactly have the true FLAVOR of one?

"If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." [Galations 5:25]

I want with all of my heart to be the real thing.  No more deceptive popcorn!