A Little Starburst:

I was at church today, and we were talking about sacrifice.  My pastor told a very funny story about his oldest son, and while I believe the story is humorous, I found it an important story to reflect on how this relates to sacrifices.  One night, his family was eating supper and his son asked for a piece of candy.  However, the pastor knew that they were going to an event after supper where they would be serving Scratch Cupcakes.  (Scratch is a really nice bakery chain in Iowa.)  

Because of this, the pastor told his son that he could have a choice.  He could have the one piece of candy that was left, which was a pink starburst, or he could wait and have a cupcake in just a little while.  Because he was a little kid, he chose the little starburst in the jar over the big and nice cupcake.  He didn’t want to wait for a treat later.  He wanted the treat that he saw right in front of him.  It is not good for his health to have both candy sugar and then cupcake sugar.  It would most likely leave him with a stomachache, so therefore, he had to settle for his choice of a pink starburst and would miss out on the nice cupcake.   

While this is a story of a little kid and their small appetites, it is important to remember that we can do this when it comes to looking at the things of this world over the heavenly things to come.  We can choose to not sacrifice because we want the items in this world and don’t look ahead to the future God promises us. Obviously we are older now, so we know to wait for a cupcake or for a better treat as opposed to the first smaller option, but now we have other temptations that we may want to choose over the heavenly choices.  

How often do we choose the lesser thing over the greater thing?  I believe there are many times when we choose to be super loved and admired in this world, as opposed to caring about our relationship in heaven.  There are many times when we can care too much about the money and success we have in this world as opposed to how well we understand the Bible and how much we spend in prayer.  We may not be thinking about our relationship with God as a success when instead we look at the money and the rewards in this world. 

I believe I care about the little starburst when I am overly concerned with how liked I am by everyone.  I want to be loved and, in some ways, admired by the people in my life.  I want to be noticed and I want to feel like I have made an impact in the world.  It is a great feeling of contentment for a bit until I go home, and those compliments don’t follow me.  However, I need to remember that when I spend a significant time with Jesus in the morning, the good feeling lasts for the whole day.  I need to find the contentment and the happiness from God, as opposed to people’s praise.  

Romans 8:23 describes the struggle that many people have with waiting for eternity or not being tempted by the items of this world.  This says, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” We wait and wait and struggle with the sins of the world and waiting to be true sons or daughters of Christ.  It is hard.  Temptations can take a lot to fight against.  Jesus and all his followers written in the Bible had the same struggle.  

 However, that verse is later followed by Romans 8:25 which says, “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. ”  This is the reminder that we do need to wait for our hopes and our future.  It is coming soon, but we do have to wait for it with patience and persistence.  However, just like a growing child probably should not have both candy and a big cupcake, we are not able to fully enjoy or have both the items of this world and the heavenly one. We are going to have to give away our few starbursts that are in this world, but then we will have the big cupcake of Christ and our everlasting future.

The challenge of this week is to think about what the starbursts in your life are as opposed to the bigger and better desserts.  I would say that my starburst is thinking more about success and achievements in my life rather than the achievement and the victory that I have in Christ.  I want to wait for compliments and constant encouragement, which can be nice, but I need to remember that I don’t need the compliments that come from the average man, but rather from God himself.