While having a rare conversation with a former college instructor who is 25 years my senior, we compared notes on how God has proved Himself faithful in our lives. After I told him about recent experience, (which has fueled many of the blog posts over the last year), this dear battle-hardened man told me of the difference between the time he was born again at age 8 and the time when he reached his teenage years when everything changed from parental management to making his own decisions.
He discovered the big world of what he called Cafeteria Bondage. He said, "It's like the cafeteria where the lady asks you if you want a salad and you reply that you are not a salad person, but this over here sure is interesting." He went on to tell me of a conscious decision that he made to have Jesus Christ as his Lord and Deliverer, since his parents were no longer in a position to be his decision makers.
More of his story followed, along with the milestones of God's faithfulness in guiding him into the ways of His wisdom and the lessons learned through hardship that would not have been learned any other way. Being 77 years old, there was no doubt in his mind that the temptation of the choices available in this cafeteria bondage environment that we live in not only don't fade but they actually become more difficult to fight against with our own power. That's why His grace is sufficient and where sin abounds, His grace much more abounds. That's what keeps us reaching up to Him in increasing confidence as the years go by.
Cafeteria Bondage...
One of those simple labels that explains so much.
