A Million Bananas

"Dad, you know what?"  My son, Vince, asked me.

I generally have no idea what wisdom my son will impart to me.  Often it is some tidbit of information from the plant or animal kingdom, or perhaps some historical fact about the Reformation.  Not today...

"I don't know Vince, what?"  I asked him.

"One banana is better than a million bananas if you are someone who doesn't like bananas!"  He said emphatically.

(Vince doesn't like bananas).

Of course, this statement could be true for any food or activity you don't like.  Even for things you do enjoy, there is some extreme that would just be "too much."  I do like bananas, but one million of them just sounds like a mess to me.

Some level of moderation and variety in life adds quite a bit of spice to it.

There are a few areas where extreme levels are to be encouraged and even desired.  Love and kindness come to mind.  Most other things -- even lobster and chocolate -- have their limits.

I'm afraid our human tendency is to push ourselves full bore into things that just don't matter that much.  Jesus was different.  In John 13 it says, "...having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."

It wasn't love of money or love of things or desire for power that drove Jesus.  What motivated Him was a love for His disciples and for us today.  His was a love that was more extreme than any love that we have known.

I would pray that that each one of us would learn the important things in life.  There really are only a few things that it is worth getting "extreme" about, but for those we should give our all.

Jesus gave His life because of love for us.  Can we do less for Him?