CHICKEN FINGERS

I think one of the reasons why I love going to Camp Atterbury each day is because of the different tasks that I need to do.  When I get to the store in the morning, I start prepping for the day--getting the coolers out, plugging in the warmers, getting the cold food, making the chicken sandwiches, etc.


One of my favorite parts of that routine is making the sandwiches...but not this morning.  This morning was a little different.  One of my kitchen guys asks when I come in "how many today?" and he breads and pressure-cooks the chicken for me.  He puts the filets in a bin and brings it over to the counter where I assemble the sandwiches.  These filets have just come up out of the peanut oil and are steaming hot.  Depending on my mood, I will sometimes grab a tongs to grab them out of the bin, but most days I simply grab them with my hand (appropriately washed and wearing a food-prep glove) to make the sandwiches.  It's faster using my hands and usually I can handle the heat by moving quickly and not handling the filet for too long.


This morning however, the bin was set on something that was not quite flat so the bin was tipped a little.  Not a big deal; I don't need the bin to be flat to grab chicken.  But let me tell you what this means--it means that the thin layer of residual oil that sits on the bottom of the bin has now pooled in one corner.  So as a go to grab that last filet, I end up stick my fingers in a pool of 18,000 degree oil.  I yanked my hand out, ripped the glove off and checked to see if my fingers were even there.  My first thought was that this hurt a little bit.  My second thought was how could something like this oil, make something so good, and yet be so bad?


And that got me thinking...how often are sticking ourselves back into the sins of our past?  How many of us keep committing the same sins over and over and over again?  I think we all have this issue.  But the thought that the Lord gave me for this blog was this: How many of us justify our sin because of what we can do for the Lord?


Here's what I mean with that: God is an awesome God who uses everything in our lives to make us who He intends us to be.  He will use the good stuff; He will use the bad stuff.  Romans 8:28 says that God will work all things for good.  Some of my greatest growth moments, some of my greatest learnings for counseling, have come out of my past sins where God has used them.  But simply because God is so good and He can grow me through my bad decisions, does that mean I should stick myself in them again to grow more?  I echo Paul in Romans 6:1-2: "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means!"


Just because this oil makes a delicious sandwich does not mean that I should stick my fingers in it; just because the Lord uses my sins to make me a better person does not mean that I should stick myself back in that sin.


Once the chicken is done cooking we throw away the oil left in the bin.  We need to be done with our sins and throw them away...or chance an eternity of cooking.


"What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."  -Romans 6:1-4 (ESV)-