McDonald's Fries and Idolatry

When I see movies or commercials, read books, listen to the radio, etc., I like to ask the following:  What is this telling me about God and myself?  I have my mom to thank for this.  For as long as I can remember, she would always ask me and my sibling what a particular movie or book was communicating to us about God and man.  At the time it drove me crazy!  I wanted to watch my movies and enjoy my books without having to examine the underlying message.  Now, however, I am grateful that my mom established this habit, for the older I get, the more I realize that no words are neutral.  Words have meaning and therefore possess the power to influence by conveying attitudes, opinions, convictions and worldview.  Simply put, everything has a message.     

That being said, I’m not a huge fan of comedian Jim Gaffigan.  He can be crude and I don’t believe he’s as witty as say, Tim Hawkins or Brian Regan.  I was recently shocked, however, by a portion of Gaffigan’s act, whereby his rave on McDonalds turned into quite the lesson on our human condition.  Indeed, this particular act was deeply theological in nature.  According to Jim Gaffigan, many of us live in “McDonald's denial”—we realize McDonald's is terrible for us, and yet we keep going back for more.  As I listened to Gaffigan mock the individuals, including himself, who return again and again to the golden arches, I was struck by the profundity of his comments, for at the core of Gaffigan’s act was this message: We all worship something.  Gaffigan spoke about McDonald’s fries in a manner that eerily resembled idolatry.  In fact, Jim Gaffigan offered amazing insight into the nature of idolatry, and all without ever once mentioning the words “sin” or “idol”:  

“I think everyone’s lying.”  Me too.  If we know that 6 billion burgers are sold and only a fraction of people are admitting to purchasing these burgers, then most people clearly aren’t telling the truth.   Either they’re reducing the number of burgers they claim to have purchased or they are denying purchasing them altogether.  So if McDonald's is comparable to sin, as I am suggesting in this example, how many of us are lying about our sins or idols?  Maybe you and I refuse to acknowledge and confess our sins in full detail, ashamed that we think or act or speak as we do. Perhaps we have tried to cut back on McDonald's and perhaps we have tried to withstand our sins.  Perhaps these attempts have been futile, and realizing our inability to say no, we feel shame.  Maybe we can’t give up our idols and thus realize that we don’t own them.  Rather, they own us, and we are enslaved to them! This bondage is a source of shame, and perhaps that is why we lie.  Perhaps we don’t want to admit we’re really that weak. 

 “Have you ever eaten too many McDonald's fries? Of course not!  There’s never enough of them!”  Isn’t it the exact same way with our sin?  Sin promises to satisfy our needs and cravings, yet it never does!  In fact, we are so hooked on our sin that we go in search of meager “fry crumbs,” scanty pleasures to fill our gnawing hunger and deep longings.

But what happens when we finally obtain our craved and sought-after fries?  Jim Gaffigan tells us: “Those fries are amaaaaazing.  For what? Like seven minutes?  And then they turn into something that’s most likely not biodegradable.”  Once again, doesn’t sin play out in a strikingly similar fashion?  We find only momentary satisfaction in our sin.  Seven minutes in this case!  What is more, we do not return to our pre-McDonald's state.  Rather, we find ourselves worse off than we were originally: Whereas we once simply craved these things—either fries or idols—now we carry the non-biodegradable effects with us.  We walk away from these encounters with something that cannot be broken down and has the potential to destroy life if allowed to accumulate. Isn’t this what our idols do?  

How about leftovers?  Jim Gaffigan asks his audience how many of them have tried to reheat their fries. These reheated fries “aren’t even good anymore,”

and yet according to Gaffigan, it “doesn’t stop you from eating them!”  Isn’t this the definition of insanity, eating something that has lost all appetitive value?  Don’t you and I do the same thing with sin?  We keep returning to our sins, knowing they won’t satisfy, and yet nevertheless hoping that this time they will.  It’s insanity, repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results.  It just ain’t gonna happen.         

“We know those McDonald’s commercials aren’t realistic. I’d just like to see one commercial that shows people five minutes after they ate McDonald's.”  Wouldn’t we all?  But of course those commercials aren’t realistic!  They were created to entice you and I, to draw us in.  Sin does the same: it lies. Sin adorns itself with all the false trappings of peace, joy, pleasure, and fulfillment, but all of these are only a thin masking for the ugly evil lurking beneath. And just like commercials, our idols will not show us the deep consequences and complications resulting from out sin until we have tasted and bought the lie.  So why do we believe these lies? I don’t think it’s solely because we are the victims of malicious schemes.  That is indeed one portion of the issue, for we are under attack (Ephesians 6:12) and Satan does indeed disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).  I believe, however, that much of it stems from the fact that we see what we want to see—we want to believe those fries are really that tasty, or that those burger buns are really that light and fluffy (as opposed to the squished, soggy, lop-sided buns we actually receive in the drive-thru).  We want the lie to be true! Likewise, we want to believe our idols will come through.  Our idols ensnare us by making false promises, yet we keep returning in the hopes that some day, those promises will become reality.  They never do.  Ever.   So I think it’s safe to say that the root of all sin and all idolatries can be traced back to belief in a lie.  Just go back and read what happened with Eve in the garden!  What lie did she believe?  What lies am I believing? 

“They get us in there….some of those deals they offer are just cruel!”  Fast food sure is enticing.  It lures us in, just like sin.  We are offered satisfaction at a bargain we cannot seem to resist.  And what happens next?  We become gluttons and gorge ourselves.   And who can honestly say they feel satisfied and content after such a gorging?  No one.  We feel sick, both physically disgusting and emotionally disgusted.  And so our idols may appear beautiful and desireable, but they are only bitter in memory.  Sin’s pleasure is only for a season, for by nature sin enslaves, entraps, destroys and kills, leaving us with heartache, sorrow and suffering.

And finally, here is what I found the most profound: “I have friends that brag about not going to McDonald's...I’m tired of people acting like they’re better than McDonald's.  It’s like, you may have never set foot in McDonald’s, but you have your own McDonald's.  Maybe instead of buying a Big Mac you read Us Weekly.  Hey, that’s still McDonald's!  It’s just served up a little different.  Maybe your McDonald's is telling yourself that Starbucks Frappuccino is not a milkshake.  Or maybe you watch Glee. It’s all McDonald's, McDonald's of the soul: momentary pleasure followed by incredible guilt eventually leading to cancer...We all have our own. We all have our own McDonald's….” Wow.  Jim Gaffigan hit the nail on the head with this one.   Those words are haunting. What is the McDonald's of my soul?  What is my idol?  What is it that I turn towards for my pleasure,  satisfaction, comfort and identity?  In what or in whom do I find my joy?  Is it Christ alone, or Christ substitutes?  And then there’s cancer.  It’s a silent killer.  Too often it goes undetected, only to be discovered once it is too late.  So I must ask myself this, what seemingly harmless idol am I feeding that will soon rear its ugly head?  What cancerous idol am I allowing to rule my life?     

Human beings—you and I—were created to worship.  The only question is, who or what do we worship?  Do we worship God or God substitutes?  If I am not worshipping God, it does not necessarily mean I am bowing down to the image I carved from the old tree in my yard. An idol can be anything or anyone in whom I place ultimate concern, value, allegiance, etc. My idols, then, are anything apart from Christ in which I place my hope and trust and identity. Idolatry, therefore, can just as much be—if not more so—an affair of the heart.  We are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love.  But as believers, you and I have been granted an incredible gift of life and hope and freedom in Christ:

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

 (Hebrews 2:14-15)

 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

(Romans 6:5-14)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

(Romans 8:1-4)

“What you treasure will ultimately require you die for it, but Jesus is the only treasure that died for you.” 

–Tim Keller

Click HERE to watch Tim Keller on: What is idolatry?

Personal Testimony: Trip Lee

"I never lived a wild lifestyle, but I was hopelessly dead in my sins." This is a short, concise, but very powerful testimony by Trip Lee.  I was extremely encouraged and challenged by all he had to say, and  I was especially struck by his comment, "But I don't think I was [a Christian] because my sin didn't bother me and Jesus was not precious to me." Wow.

Pride, Unbelief, and the Failure to Forgive

“But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:15)

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.  […] For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:37-38)

In response to being forgiven by God, shouldn’t our hearts overflow in love and forgiveness towards others?  Shouldn’t we be so in awe of the underserving mercy God has shown us that our lives are characterized by an outpouring of grace towards others?  Why then, when we are wronged, do we feel a driving need to call out the unjust?  Why do we hold grudges, and why do we possess the urge to defend ourselves and show others the offenders’ true colors?  Why does anger and resentment eat away at our souls, and is there a better way to respond when we feel unjustly aggrieved?

For myself, I am learning that the gnawing I feel within to have vengeance and set things right stems mainly from a heart of pride and unbelief.  One of my greatest idols is man’s approval.  I’m a people-pleaser, and as such much of my identity is wrapped up in how others view me.  While being a people-pleaser may cause me to appear humble, the reality is that my people-pleasing behavior actually stems from a twisted sense of pride—pride that demands others respect me and hold me in high esteem. Any slight against my character or person is thus a danger that threatens to destroy my world.  How do I respond to such slights?  Anger.  Bitterness.  Resentment.  Despair.  I believe also that my failure to forgive arises from a heart of unbelief which manifests itself in two ways— unbelief in who I am and unbelief in Who God is.  What do I mean by unbelief in who I am?  I mean that I fail to recognize how sinful I really am—I write my sins off as trivial compared to the sins of others, refusing to believe that I’m really that bad.  What a lie.  And then there’s my unbelief in God which doubts His sovereignty, goodness, and justice.  And what does this cause me to do?  I take matters into my own hands.               

C.S. Lewis writes on the problem of forgiveness in the following:

“. . . you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.

As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought.

But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.”

If I cherish and nurse a grudge against a fellow man, how can I dare approach God and demand mercy? If I—a depraved and sin-soiled sinner—demand justice when I am slighted, how much more should the holy and all-powerful God of the universe demand justice when His name is scorned?  Why should God have mercy on me if I fail to render to Him that which I demand for myself from others?  He shouldn’t.  In fact, the intensity with which I hold others guilty bears testimony to the fact that God will hold me guilty for my sins against Him.  It seems then that Christ’s command to “Forgive that you might be forgiven,” is not just a suggestion—it’s a rule!  I like how John Piper states it when he writes:

“God treats us in accordance with the belief of our heart: if we believe it is good and beautiful to harbor resentments and tabulate wrongs done against us, then God will recognize that our plea for forgiveness is sheer hypocrisy—for we will be asking Him to do what we believe to be bad. It is a dreadful thing to try to make God your patsy by asking Him to act in a way that you, as your action shows, esteem very lowly.”

And so, what can I take away from this?  If, in my pride, I hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, I am proving that I do not trust Christ and His way of life, for how could I withhold forgiveness for mild offenses when my monstrous debt against the most high God has been paid in full?  I know I can’t earn Heaven by forgiving others, but my prayer is that I will cease to be like the unforgiving servant Jesus spoke of in Matthew 18.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, may I come to resist revenge against those who have hurt me, grieve at their calamities, pray for their welfare, and seek reconciliation so far as it depends on me. 

“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 1:23)

Shadows that Haunt

The shadows of fear, anxiety and self-indulgence all too often become ghosts and phantoms that haunt us.  The slightest gust of wind fills us with terror and a creaky floor causes us to freeze.  Friends become backstabbers, our parents our adversaries, and God—an enemy.  With darting eyes and racing hearts we find ourselves hurrying along, occasionally daring to rapidly glance back over our shoulder. 

Why this running and hiding lifestyle as though we are escaped convicts? Is it possible that all the worries of this world, combined with a sin-soiled conscience, have made us restless and prone to fear and avoidance?  I think so.  Maybe we have a sense that someone or something is out to get us, that we are being pursued. It is this terror that quickly consumes us, causing us to turn and flee in fear and mistrust even when we are not being pursued.

“The wicked flee when no one pursues…”

Proverbs 8:21a

Our guilty conscience condemns us, and in our wickedness and despair we are fearful.  But is there hope?  Is there somewhere we may find rest and boldness, somewhere we may shed our fears? 

Indeed, there is one great shadow we need not fear and from which we need not flee.   It is beneath this shadow—the shadow of the cross—that we are freed from the nightmares of our sins.  Here alone are we blessed and here alone do we find rest.  And it is here, in the shadow of the cross, that we are confronted with the Gospel and all that Christ has done on our behalf.  

“But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6

As believers, we have a mighty and merciful message in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is a great hope and security in the face of a guilty conscience that threatens to destroy us.   No longer does every breeze that blows or every floor that creaks condemn us.  We need not agonize over the voices that once joined in unison to testify to our guilt, for in Christ all is washed away and we are freed from fear and healed of our sins!   

“..let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience

and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Hebrews 10:22

“…for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart,
 and he knows everything.  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, 

we have confidence before God…”

1 John 30:20-21

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered;

blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Romans 4:7-8

“There is therefore now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:1

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

John 8:36

What great and glorious truths! We are freed and protected and glorified when we hide ourselves within the shadow of Christ and the cross.      

“And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord,

and I will be the glory in her midst.”

Zechariah 2:5

So let us hide ourselves within the fiery walls of protection afforded us by Christ's sacrifice, and when Satan tempts us to despair and our guilty hearts cry out of the guilt we hold within, may we boldly look to the cross and hold fast to the promise and reassurance and hope we have in Christ: 

When Satan tempts me to despair,

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look, and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,

My sinful soul is counted free;

For God the just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me
(Before the Throne of God Above)

So what does mean?  It means we can stop running and hiding.  In Christ we are promised protection from the fires and shadows that haunt us.  His guiltless blood shed for us has covered all our sins and they are remembered no more.  No more! They have been removed as far as the East is from the West.    We may now come to the Father not as vile convicts but as sons and daughters of the King.  Unlike the shadows of our past, the shadow of the cross will never threaten or haunt us.  Rather, it is in the shadow of what Christ has done on the cross that we are granted the greatest blessing of all—we are invited to come and forevermore be filled with the infinite joy of God’s glory and presence.    

“For I will satisfy the weary soul,

 and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

 Jeremiah 31:25