fast food

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A Week Of Eating Out

I don’t know how single guys do it – I’d be broke and weigh about 500 pounds if I wasn’t married.  I’d never think about it though, if it wasn’t for a week like this past one.

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Reality set in Friday night. I don’t go away all that often, and Lily goes away on her own even less, but this past week we were both away … separately.

I had some meetings in the Toronto area Tuesday and Wednesday, and Lily had work meetings in Montreal Wednesday to Friday.

The hard part was figuring out our vehicle situation because number one son also needed a car for parts of the week. But once that was settled, we were all good.

… Except for the food thing.

While I was away, I was eating meals brought into our meetings and going out to restaurants. When I got home, Lily was gone so it was just eating out at restaurants for me.

Lil said something to Mike our son about checking in with Dad around dinner time and his comment was, “Ya, I guess he won’t be cooking”.

He had that right. I make a mean hot oat bran cereal in the morning, but past that my skills and desire fall pretty flat.

So over the week I had pizza twice, subs once, fajitas once, hamburgers twice, a hotdog, and of course, I had hot wings.

I almost fasted over lunch one day. I had played hockey at noon and missed lunch. I almost thought I didn’t need anything, but when I was nearing Harvey’s, I got a hankering for a hotdog.

So the craziest thing happened – the car just automatically turned into the parking lot and parked itself. It was just like one of those Ford car commercials where they let go of the steering wheel and the car takes over and parks.

I just had to go in then!

You can see that if this was a regular pattern of eating for me, my weight would skyrocket and I would be burning the strip right off my debit card.

Though I might not get that far, according to my doctor my cholesterol would soar, and my arteries would clog up like putting a drain stopper in a sink.

I have to be careful, and I’m glad that Lil’s now home and I’m getting good healthy meals … well except for tonight – it’s Saturday night and there’s a hockey game on.

You know what that means: it’s hot wings and a Dr. Pepper . . . mmm  . . .  I can feel by blood pressure on the rise just thinking about it.

I know what you’re thinking: Paul needs an intervention. But listen, it’s only one week, and I’ll be back to eating carrots, broccoli and almonds for lunches before you even get to read this.

That’s right, I’ll be back saving money and getting slim. I just have to finish off that darn candy sitting around the house from Christmas.

Here’s the thing: There are all kinds of interruptions that come into our day, our week, our life. They get us off track from taking time with God. Don’t let them permanently derail you. Don’t get down because you missed a few days. Just start today and get yourself back into the groove of taking that regular time with God. He’s waiting for you, and He’s not going to beat you up about missing some days. He’s happy to have you back spending time with Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What patterns do you fall into when you fall out of routine? Leave your comment below.

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Another Amazing Burger King Experience

The other day, my wife and I ate at a Burger King.  It’s not our habit to eat there; in fact, neither of us could remember the last time we had a whopper.  But we were traveling, needed to eat, and BK was all we could find.

So, here’s a question:  What does “Burger King” stand for?  Maybe they mean their burger is the biggest (they don’t call it the whopper for nothing).  Maybe they mean it’s the best burger out there (that’s debatable).  I’ll tell you what they don’t mean – they don’t mean they have the best, most efficient, and fastest service of all the fast food restaurants!

When we went in, there was a crowd of people standing in a semi-circle in front of the serving counter.  You don’t see a line up like that everyday, so I was a little confused as to where I should stand.  I asked one person if he was waiting to order, and was told he was waiting for his food.  So I went right up to the counter; there was no one else ordering.

Just before the server asked me for my order, I looked over my shoulder at this semi-circle of people.  I noticed two things:  they all had little white pieces of paper in their hands that resembled receipts, and none of them were smiling.

As I started to get an uneasy feeling, the server asked, “Can I take your order?”  His voice reminded me of my hunger and the smell of food caused me to forget about the semi-circle of people behind me.  I gave him my order and paid.  Then I turned around and found my place in the semi-circle.

I wanted to look frustrated like everyone else, but I just couldn’t.  You see, years ago I had a similar experience at another Burger King, and as I stood in that semi-circle I had a flashback …

I was with my whole family, and our kids were about 15 and 13 at the time.  When we got inside that Burger King, the line up to order was huge.  But strangely, no one was taking orders.

There was lots of activity behind the counter, and about seven bags of food sitting on the counter.  The person who was supposed to be taking the orders was busy opening the bags to see what was in them.  Apparently, they kept making food but couldn’t seem to figure out who it belonged to!

People in line were mad; some even left to eat elsewhere.  We debated leaving, but we had started conversations with people around us and didn’t want to abandon our new found friends!

The manager was a little man, who looked like Quasimodo or Mr Creeply from the Flintstones.  He was running around with a shifty looking smile on his face.  At one point, he took five bags of orders out to the drive through (because no one out there had gotten their orders either!).  When he came back in, he still had the five bags!  He put them back on the counter and chuckled in his sinister way.

After we finally got our food that day, we sat down and watched the show from our seats.  We were laughing so hard at the workers and the customers – it was great entertainment!  Hey, maybe that’s what “King” stands for … best fast food entertainment of all!

Here’s the thing:  There are things on earth we call “king”, and there are some heads of state we acknowledge as “king”.  But the Bible says there is only one King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  All others pale in similarity.  All others are laughable comparisons.  The Bible also says that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What counterfeit “kings” vie for your loyalty? Leave your comment below.