The Wages of Dieting

The man sitting across from me cleared his throat uncomfortably.  "Well...” he said in a grumbly sort of voice that told me that he didn't like the subject of our current conversation.

We were talking about his diabetes and how he was following his diet, which I could tell by his reaction, he wasn't.  I flipped open his chart to look at the lab results that it contained. They told the story themselves.  His blood work had consistently increased since his diagnosis of diabetes 3 years previously.  The medications had initially made a big impact, but now, they seemed to be doing very little.

Kenneth cleared his throat again and began telling me the story about some man who came over to his house every evening to eat supper.  I couldn't see what it had to do with everything else that we were talking about, but I didn't want to cut him off either, so I listened, less than raptly.

"Yup," Kenneth was saying  "He comes over every evening whether I invite him or not.  He's an old guy and just as cheap as they come.  Why he wouldn't even pay to have his wife get a proper head stone.  Just got the cheapest thing they would give him and stuck it in the cemetery...” I wondered idly if it was worth saying anything more about Kenneth's diabetes or if it was a lost cause.

Kenneth continued "Last night I made a cake..."

"With real sugar?"  I asked.

"Yes,” he answered brazenly enough. "But I only had two small pieces and then Bill came over and wondered if I had any sweets in the house.  Well, I told him I did and showed him the cake.  Well, do you know what he did?"

I could guess easily enough.  "He finished the cake."

"Yes, he did! How did you know?"

"I just guessed.  Does Bill have diabetes?"  I asked, innocently enough.

"Oh, yes. But he doesn't follow his diet at all.  He'll eat anything, particularly if it's sweet.  He just doesn't stop."

Now I could see it all.  Kenneth was telling me this story, not to distract me from scolding him over his diet, but to pardon himself. "See," he was saying.  "I know someone who is much worse than myself.  I'm really not so bad."

This of course is human nature.  It is difficult to change our actions and so, we find people around us who are "worse" than we are and point at them.  Someone is following their diet worse than we are, or someone is exercising less than we are.  It makes us feel better about ourselves, without our really having to change a thing about ourselves.

Unfortunately, when it comes to sin, it is not enough to point to someone worse off than us. The Bible tells us "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)  There is no question that there are plenty of others around that are full of sin, but the question is whether we personally have made an attempt to make things right with God.  Until we are willing to do that, we will be stuck with the wages of sin -- death.