missioncraze

The Aldi effect

For the record, “Cheesy corn chips” are not the same as Doritos! I used to get so mad as a kid when my sweet mom would try to convince me of this, she’d say “son the Cheesy corn chips are no different, just the price. Then as we’d bag up our “cheese curlz” (spelling exact, with our own bag mind you) the convincing would continue, son these “cheese curlz” taste just like your friends Cheetos do.” Even as a kid I knew that there was a reason why they didn’t call them Cheetos or Doritos, you know why because they weren’t the same thing! (Gosh! Tina! Food!)
This is what I call the Aldi effect, we’re so bent on saving 39 cents per bag of chips that we, yep you guessed it, settle for imitation and then what you do is send your kid off to school who in returns begins stealing all the other kids Doritos. This is how it all started for me. I had no other choice :)

For some reason since the beginning mankind has been incredibly inclined to run after imitation vs. intimacy. We desire fake and false realities verses desiring the ultimate reality himself, that being the heart of God!

This past month I ran or attempted to run I should say the 30th annual Chicago Marathon. Not a good idea. Now if you paid attention to the news you know that this year was unlike any other year in the 30 year history of the race. At race time the ole thermometer read 80 degrees, and race time is at 8am mind you. So the race began and I was feeling great, for at least, I don’t know 2 to 5 hundred yards. I mean seriously early in the race I knew I was in trouble and to make things far worse I made it to the 1st water and Gatorade station and there’s none left. Yeah, seriously no water or Gatorade, so practicing positive thinking I’m like no big deal it’s only negating my body what it needs for survival, no worries just keep moving. Well at mile 8 my overheating gauge started to come on, and at this point I was hot, really hot and the temperature at this point was in the low 90’s. Are you kidding me! Now I ran this same race, same course just a year prior and felt drastically different, but its amazing what happens to us when the heat in our life is turned up. As I continued to briskly walk or run I’d like to classify it as spiritual parallels began to fill my mind of God being the fountain of life, and me only wanting to run to him when things in my life are hard, and I’m thinking of the scripture in Revelation telling me “come all who are thirsty and drink” and I’m saying God I’m thirsty and I need some help here, I then thought of the verse “blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”, so I’m like God please, show your electrolytic mercies and reign down your amazing provision of water or Gatorade. God please I’m dying here I need you, I need a break through.

Then it happened. I looked through the steam that was coming off of Clark street, off in the distance my provision awaited me! In the distance I could see it, not a water station or Gatorade station no that would be too much to ask of the city of Chicago. But in the distance there it was, the answer to my desires, a fountain of water. Now this was not like a drinking fountain, I’m talking like a fountain fountain, Buckingham style, a huge fountain with beautiful cold, refreshing, inviting, wet, water. And the closer I got the more my mouth, well wanted to water but I was so dehydrated I couldn’t produce “mouth water” anymore. No “mouth water production” ended at mile 2. As I approached the fountain I didn’t waste any time trying to sip or even wait courteously in line. No, I dunked me entire head in the fountain and for all practical purposes I was now bathing in the fountain. I mean the water was so cold, so clear and the more I looked at it strangely blue. As I was about to go for more I heard a lady proclaim, “don’t drink that water it’ll make you sick, there’s chemicals in that water”. Now…anger instantly filled my being and slowly I now realized that she was right, there was a reason this water looked like water imported from the tropics of Maui, you know why it looked that way? Because they put flippin’ chemicals in it and this once beautiful all consuming refreshment of a water source turned out to be merely an imitation to the real thing, and there I was dejected, disappointed, and yeah as you can imagine still extremely thirsty.

How about you? Have you ever settled for the imitation, have you ever settled for something that from a distance appeared to be the real thing only to find out that it was, well not the real thing at all?

Our keen ability to settle for imitation started in Chapter 3 of Genesis, and since that day we are in a battle of the tension of imitation vs. intimacy. And for the record spend the extra 39 cents and get Doritos, please, help me redeem my childhood :)

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