“All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.” Psalm 38:9
Watching the Steelers-Browns football game last night, my desire for 1 team to win was overpowered by a desire for a snack. Right there, on a critical 3rd and 10 play, I got up and walked to the kitchen! Opening the door to the refrigerator, then to the pantry, nothing really appealed to me. I settled on a piece of cheese and walked back into the room. “Hmmm,” I thought… “apparently they didn’t make it!” Then I thought, “Ohhh… good cheese!”
This morning, as I was online, an ad popped up that showed a fat guy holding his belly and the caption, “Worried about fatty liver?” I couldn’t hold back a belly laugh until a zing went through my brain, “well… I WASN’T!” Budweiser used the same ad technique for trying to sell more Bud Light. Ye Old knights are pulling a huge barrel labeled ‘corn syrup’ to deliver it elsewhere. The message? “Worried about artificial sweeteners in your beer?” Even though I don’t drink beer, I got a zing!
The subliminal message scam has been around since the Garden of Eden, where satan turned that beautiful fruit into a ‘desire’ for something else. And man has been fighting mixed messages ever since. Sadly, the ONLY difference between a ‘saved’ man and a ‘not saved’ one is their ultimate destination. We ALL have desires and we ALL fail at keeping the ‘zing’ of false advertising at bay.
This verse is in the middle of a Psalm where David is absolutely feeling AWFUL because of sin. Faced with the guilty repercussions of succumbing to the ‘zing,’ he is now faced with the problem of how to get RID of the dirty feeling and come clean. What makes David “a man after God’s own heart” is that David does the abnormal. He actually RUNS TO the God he deliberately offended… and unloads.
I am not a quarterback of a major football team who carries the weight of a victory on his shoulders. I am not an ‘ad man’ tasked with the responsibility of selling more beer or liver pills. What ‘I am’ is a born again man living in a fleshy body where warring desires seeking fulfillment are the norm… NOT the exception.
I thank God that my situation is not perilous. I have God’s Word to give me direction and God’s Holy Spirit to lead and guide. And even when I go ‘off road,’ I have God’s guarantee that He KNOWS my desires and will ALWAYS be here… to get me there! His ad? Jesus Christ is ultimately GUARANTEED more powerful and permanent than any ‘zing’ from anywhere else! Thank GOD I already invested in His program!
“Are YOU worried about eternity?”
