The Day of the Dorito

I remember sticking my hand into a bag of Doritos one time and subsequently enduring the most heated argument that ever has taken place between 2 voices in one person's head.  It was during this argument that I realized I had a trust issue. (Okay, I realized I had issues, period. But mainly a trust issue.) For the first time it really hit me that even though I knew it would be better for me to release the chip, remove the hand and throw away the bag, I didn't trust that I would be okay without the chips. I didn't trust that life would go on for me if I didn't eat those chips. I didn't trust that the helpless feeling would pass. I didn't trust that I could be just as content without eating those chips. I didn't trust the TRUTH.

What did I trust? My flesh. My desires. My wants. Those were the things that I had placed my trust in. There was (and still is) this little voice inside my head that speaks for my fleshly desires. And dang it, that voice should be selling oceanfront property in Arizona. It's good. It's real good. It can rationalize, coax, assure and it really knows how to close a deal. The only problem with this voice? It's a LIAR.

Romans Chapter 7:

4 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

The day of the Dorito was when I realized that part of me didn't want to eat the chips but another part of me did. Two very distinct parts. And I realized that the part of me who did want to eat the chips was winning more battles in the war than the other part.

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

So frustrating! I thought to myself, why do I always trust the sleazy salesman voice who cares nothing about me instead of trusting the voice of truth that died for me to be free?

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

On this day, with that thought weighing heavily on my mind, I chose to put up the Doritos. By the grace of God, I stopped eating them. The day of the Doritos will live in infamy. It is forever etched in my mind. Because it was the day I understood that the truth really will set me free...

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

To be free. At the heart of it all, that's what we want, right? Freedom. But we first must know The Truth. We must know it so that we can recognize it and hear it. But freedom does not come when we merely know the truth and hear the truth. Freedom comes when we act upon the truth.

It seems the key to this whole thing is in the very last sentence of Romans 7:

So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Fill your mind with the truth of God's Word.

Believe the truth.

Trust the truth.

Believe it and trust it over the flesh. When the voice of the flesh begins to whisper in your ear, demolish it with the Truth. Allow the Truth to reign in your life! I refuse to be a slave to Doritos. If I'm going to be a slave to something, let it be for the cause of Christ, the only cause worth living for and the only cause worth dying for. Amen.