Hammer on Anvil '

I watched a documentary about healthy eating the other day and it used a phrase I had never heard before – suicide by eating.  The phrase refers to people who have a medical condition that requires a change in their diet or they will die.  Surprisingly (to me), many people refuse to make the change.  They adopt the attitude that since they’re going to die someday anyways, they may as well live in a way that makes them happy (even if their choices cause them to die significantly earlier than they would have otherwise).  That attitude can be summarized by this quote from a man in the movie: “I decided that if I’m going, I’m going happy.”

There are remarkable parallels between this and our spiritual lives.  We all make choices that are destructive to our own spiritual lives.  Why?  Because we want to be happy and we don’t think we’re going to die anytime soon.

At one point in the documentary, the main character talked with a sixteen-year-old girl.  He asked the girl, “If I told you that eating fruits and vegetables really would keep you healthy, would that change your outlook on them?”  She said no.  When he asked why not, she said, “Cause I’m sixteen.”

We all make choices based upon our beliefs (what we truly believe, not what we claim to believe).  The evidence seems to suggest that, for many of us, we don’t think we are going to die anytime soon.  After all, a dying man behaves differently than one who is full of life.

Another deeply held belief that many of us share is that we believe we can’t be happy unless we are in control and can make any choice we want.  We try to make choices that give us maximum happiness and minimal negative consequences.  Problems inevitably arise, though, because our choices are too rarely aligned with God’s choices for us.  For some reason, we believe that following God requires us to be unhappy.  In Billy Joel’s song “Only the Good Die Young,” he says, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints; the sinners are much more fun.”  This is the sentiment that we act upon.

But God wants us to be happy too.  He knows, though, that the only lasting happiness is with Him.  And he knows way better than we do.  When we make our choices about maximum happiness and minimal negative consequences, we choose based on our limited perspective of the world.  Think about it.  Of all the knowledge in the universe, how much would you say you know?  If we are being exceedingly generous, we could say that you have 1% of the big picture.  And you use that 1% to make all of your choices.  On the other hand, God has 100% of the big picture.  Based on that, shouldn’t we know that God can make a way better decision than we can?  Aren’t we demonstrating the height of arrogance when we make choices without God?

If you are indulging on your own choices, it’s time to change your diet.  It’s time to eliminate the arrogance and practice submitting to God.  Don’t commit suicide by arrogance.