No More Frozen Pizza

I generally don’t make New Year’s resolutions. But this year I’m making an exception.

My resolution for 2007 is not to eat any frozen pizza.

Pizza is a strong candidate for my favorite food. I like deep dish pizza, stuffed pizza, thin crust pizza and authentic Italian pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven. I like pizza with mushrooms, onions, sausage, olives, pepperoni, green peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and just about anything else you can put on a pizza.

Pizza is also the food I am most likely to eat too much of.

I don’t eat sweets, so I am not tempted by pie, cake or ice cream. You can leave a bowl of M&M’s in front of me, and I won’t eat a single one. But pizza is a different matter. I’ve even forced down a slice of pizza when I was already stuffed.

So what’s the problem with frozen pizza?

The problem is that frozen pizza is not real pizza. Most of it is little more than cardboard with tomato sauce and “cheese” on it. Even the best frozen pizza is a weak imitation of the real thing.

If I’m going to have pizza, I want the real thing.

I don’t want to waste empty calories on something that fills my stomach and yet leaves me hungry—longing for the real thing.

Of course, this is bigger than pizza.

I’m also done with reduced-fat peanut butter, fat-free mayonnaise and turkey franks. But food is just the tip of the iceberg.

The prophet Isaiah records these words of the Lord:

Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare (55:2).

Our lives are filled with fake junk.

We sit in our imitation leather chairs while we watch “reality” shows on TV that are interrupted by ads that tell a fictional love story that centers around instant decaffeinated coffee and by mechanically animated commercials selling us financial investments with a “personal touch.” We then go to our computers where we enter the virtual community of My Space while smoking low-tar cigarettes and eating “butter-flavored” popcorn.

Sundays are no different. We get up and eat Egg Beaters for breakfast. Then we drive 30 minutes to a church where we have a manufactured “worship experience” and listen to an entertaining monologue from a preacher who wishes he were Jay Leno.

Enough.

Jesus said, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (John 10:10, The Message).

So why do we settle for imitation life?

We spend our time, energy and resources accumulating wealth, trying to make ourselves look attractive, buying the latest electronic gadget, going to trendy vacation spots, developing our abs, indulging in addictive pleasures, applying products to our bodies to make us look younger and scaling the never-ending ladder of “success.”

And the whole time our souls are starving.

I’m not talking about pagans, atheists or hedonists. I’m talking about people who claim to be among Jesus’ “sheep.” I’m talking about myself.

Do I really believe that God causes all things to work together for my good? Do I really believe that if I focus on the Kingdom of God that God will supply all my needs? Do I really believe that nothing can separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ? Do I really believe that God intends to fulfill the desires of my heart? Do I really believe that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us? Do I really believe that my life can be suffused with love, joy and peace?

Then why am I gorging myself on frozen pizza?

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”