By Justin Gray
Have you ever had something stuck in the vending machine? It's one of the most annoying phenomenons out there...especially when you're hungry.
Sure, theoretically I could wait several hours until I get home to partake in a freshly prepared, piping hot, home-cooked meal, but why wait when you can insert a dollar fifty and get that plastic wrapped number C17 sandwich? Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Who would dare refrain from such a delicious convenience?
I've spent many an hour in the break room with a grumbling stomach, salivating before the wishing well of miniature snacks. So you can imagine the cataclysmic disappointment when the vending machine does not vend and leaves my hopes hanging upon it's coiled metallic fingertips.
I must admit, at various times the cries of injustice from my belly have caused me to lash out in violence. I've found myself kicking and shaking the perpetrator and boisterously demanding the release of that tasty hostage.
Too often my methods of intimidation fail me and with much embarrassment and exhaustion I've hung my head whispering "maybe next time."
I know...some of you are probably shouting AMEN in agreement while others of you are sneering at such barbaric behavior BUT whatever side of the fence you're on the fact is that I did it...and if you're honest, I'm not alone.
I know...some of you are probably shouting AMEN in agreement while others of you are sneering at such barbaric behavior BUT whatever side of the fence you're on the fact is that I did it...and if you're honest, I'm not alone.
In juxtaposition to this much too frequent vending machine dilemma, during my usual time of sporadic devotional reading of the Bible I had an epiphany. Selah.
I have often treated God much like that dysfunctional vending machine. Oh how oft have the outcries of my corrupted motives reached for the heavens demanding satisfaction of my selfish desires? How many empty hours have I lashed out in anger or shriveled in disappointment when my petitions were unfulfilled? Uh. Uh. Uh.
Presumptuously, I have brought the wrinkled dollars of my faith and shoved them into prayer hoping to stir the King of the cosmos.
I thought I could approach God and make my whimsical selection: press H17 for a house, press C3 for a car, press D12 for my latest fantasy.
As a follower of Christ dare I continue life in such a condition? God forbid. And if ever my heart sinks again to such condescension let my conscience be aroused by the words of the apostle James:
As a follower of Christ dare I continue life in such a condition? God forbid. And if ever my heart sinks again to such condescension let my conscience be aroused by the words of the apostle James:
"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."
Have you ever had something stuck in the vending machine? If you have, it was probably because you didn't need it anyway.
