Eat The Chocolate!

Last week my wife and I spent some time in Southern California with some dear friends of ours. To say that we had a great time would be an understatement. It's a beautiful part of the country and I can see why so many people have gravitated there over the years.

One of the unexpected treats for us was the fact that we were able to go to an Aldi supermarket. When we lived in Tennessee we frequented our local Aldi, but now that we live in Oregon we no longer have that luxury. They have a variety of great products at terrific prices, but the crowning jewel (in my humble opinion) is their hazelnut and dark chocolate bar. It's a generously sized bar of wonderful dark chocolate filled with whole hazelnuts. I've spent a lot of time eating good chocolate (including 3 months in Switzerland that definitely weren't squandered in that regard), and this bar is at the very top for me. Aldi is a German company, and this item is one of the products that's made over there, so don't worry chocolate snobs, it's legit. On top of being preposterously good, it's also priced at something like $2.69, and it's probably at least twice the size of most chocolate bars that sell for around $4.00.

All of this to say: if you live anywhere near an Aldi and you like chocolate AT ALL, I would highly recommend swinging by to pick one up.

Do you know how I know these bars are so good? I've eaten one. Many times. Whenever I have the chance to buy one, I don't just look at it and think about what it would be like to eat it, I ACTUALLY EAT IT!

Through the years I've told many people about these particular bars of chocolate because of how strongly I feel about them, but that doesn't take the place of me actually taking the time to eat them myself. That would just be silly.

As Christians we think we're supposed to tell other people about Jesus. We think we're supposed to volunteer at our church and in our community as ambassadors for God. Why? Because we believe in Him? Because we believe that people who don't know Him would benefit from knowing Him? Because we think we're supposed to?

Well...yes, yes, and yes, but if we stop engaging in our own relationship with God, aren't we missing something? It would be like telling other people about a chocolate bar that you never bother eating yourself, or even going to the effort of buying a chocolate bar and then just setting it on the shelf indefinitely. The beauty of chocolate isn't the idea of chocolate, it's the actual act of consuming the chocolate.

If you don't "get" worship, if you don't spend time engaging in conversational (two way) prayer with God, or if you never sit in His presence just to enjoy His company, what does your faith actually consist of? Maybe it's a religion and not a relationship for you after all.

The beauty of what we believe as Christians is that it's so much more than just a belief system. It's also a living, breathing, relationship with the Creator of the universe, and I think we would be absolutely crazy to not participate in that part of it.

EAT THE CHOCOLATE!