Late last week my younger daughter texted to tell me someone threw up in her last period class, didn’t quite make it to the trash can, and the teacher didn’t call for a custodian, so the smell of it permeated the room for the duration. Bright pink in color, the image and smell are now permanently ingrained in my daughter’s memory. The following day, the student quickly explained away her swift return by telling the class she had eaten too many hot chips at lunch the day before.
I’m guessing she will pass on eating hot chips for at least a good while, and I don’t see my daughter (or anyone in that class for that matter) reaching for a spicy treat anytime soon.
Maybe we all need a large dose of hot chips. As in, the thing that gets in the way of us growing into who God has planned for us to be- a fixation on less important things like too much exercise, food, work, TV, shopping, scrolling, the list goes on- if we could just have too much of that “great” thing. If we binged on what we shouldn’t be doing to the point that it became so distasteful, so disgusting, so smelly, it would be easy to turn toward what we should be doing instead. And the bad taste left in our mouths from such excess would be a strong deterrent until the new habit takes root and grows into the fabric of our lives, contributing so much strength to the mesh that we couldn’t possibly give it up and turn to our old ways.
May God send us all a super hefty serving of hot chips.
But if that isn’t His plan, may He give us indelible images and memories of other people’s hot chips that would deter us from behaviors He hasn’t chosen for us.