moldy kraft singles

About a year ago my wife and I were walking around downtown Venice, Florida. We had lived in Venice for a few months. It was known to be a very wealthy area. The constant barrage of art and craft shows at least kept up an appearance of wealth.

Anyway… Sarah and I were looking for a night out. We decided to head downtown to grab dinner and go for a walk. I even wore my sport jacket.

The evening felt perfect. We could feel a soft ocean breeze. We walked up and down streets, looking into shop windows. We stopped for dinner at a little Italian restaurant before walking some more.

Everyone that was out looked their best. Old men smoked expensive cigars while old women walked expensive dogs. Expensive cars cruised up and down the street. We started feeling… expensive.

It felt great. 

Finally, we stopped for ice cream. We strolled in, looked at the menu and our jaws dropped. An ice cream cone is HOW MUCH? Do I need to insure the cone in case I drop it?

It didn’t matter how tasty it was.

The show was over. We didn’t drive there in an expensive car. We certainly weren’t walking an expensive dog. We were brought back to Earth by… ice cream.

Which brings me to moldy Kraft singles…

I opened the refrigerator once and went straight for the cheese drawer. I wanted a snack. The only cheese left was a small stack of Kraft singles. They looked… old. I think they were in there for quite some time. I considered serving them with a glass of wine to our friends. Aged cheese and wine. I laughed out loud.

Nobody would fall for that.

We only temporarily fell for our act of wealth.

We were trying to be something we weren’t on our downtown date. It wasn’t as funny as the thought of serving molded Kraft singles as an appetizer. It was all a facade nonetheless. Sticker shock on an ice cream cone ruined our evening. Most of the drive home was spent talking about it. What a waste!

We put on a mask. It wasn’t even an original one. It was borrowed from thousands of people doing the same thing that we were doing.

God didn’t make us all the same. In fact, I don’t think He made two of us even close to the same. So why do we try so hard to be like other people? Why do we try to forget who we really are? Sarah and I did not recently retire to our summer home in Venice like so many of the people we had seen on our date. We lived in a small apartment and worked in Venice.

God gave us all specific talents, desires… God gave us all something that we love. When we reach for the things that God gave other people we are coveting. God wants us to have the things that He has for us. Could you imagine the way your parents would feel if on Christmas morning you opened your presents and then started trading them with the other kids in the room?

Doesn’t God know what we need better than we do? Doesn’t God know what we want better than we do? We should be a little more content. Especially since God has promised to fulfill a great work in us.

He is working on us. He is building us. We have no idea what we really need or want in order to become what God wants us to be.

One last thought:

If God is our father, that makes us royalty. God is King so I am a prince. Why am I trying to trade that for an ice cream cone? I am what God made me. I am going to be what God is making me to be.