Chinese Takeout and a Side of Offense
March 14, 2018·Carmen Quevedo
It was Sunday, after church, and I was soooo hungry. Our family enjoys a certain Chinese restaurant, because the food is good, pretty inexpensive and, most importantly, if I order as we leave the church parking lot, it’s ready when we get there!
So, I go in to pick up our order, and the cashier is giving the guy in front of me his total. Without any provocation, he responds appropriately, and then makes an unrelated, truly awful, politically-biased statement. No one was having a political conversation; he was just making his perspective known loud and clear. I gotta tell ya, I wasn’t in the mood to hear it. I just wanted my food! I chose silence. It was going to get food in my stomach much faster.
Then, I was reading Romans 14 this week and was reminded of my Chinese takeout with a side of offense. While the Scripture really is talking about choosing not to eat or drink things that would cause our brothers or sisters to stumble, it reminded me that we eat (or hear) a lot of junk, opinions and angry words in the course of our daily lives. When we eat these things, sometimes, we repeat stuff that is just downright offensive to the people around us, and we don’t even know that we are serving up a side of offense. They’re just trying to pick up takeout food, and we’re regurgitating stuff that isn’t helpful to them. Maybe it doesn’t exactly come out of our mouths, but, instead, it shows up on our social media, and it’s as if we said it ourselves.
Romans 14:17 (NLT) says, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” I think this applies to more than food and drink. I believe it applies to the influences we have in our lives and the things that come out of our mouths because of those influences. I don’t want to eat and drink, and then say and post things that will inadvertently hurt someone who just wanted to pick up their takeout. How about you? Let’s choose to live a life of goodness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Carmen Quevedo
