Life in the Fast-Food Lane

Written by Rhonda Rhea

I’d like to squelch that rumor circulating the area that if my husband wants to hide something from me, he puts it in the oven. Totally untrue. My husband would never hide anything from me.

I do spend weeks at a time living in the fast food lane. Maybe you’ve found yourself stuck here with me in a “fast food Star Trek time-warp-loop” of some kind. Have you ever gotten to the end of a week and realized you hadn’t used silverware? The activity-loaded lifestyle we’ve adopted drives us right into this pickle. And I do mean “drives” us. When school started, I entered my car. I’ve hardly seen still ground since. I’m thinking my letter carrier might deliver to my minivan if it weren’t moving so much faster than his truck.

Has drive-through mania hit you?

You drive through for a burger on your way to drive through for a prescription, then drive through for a drop-off at the cleaners before dropping off kids at ballgames and ballet classes. You drop off papers, projects, payments — you name it. Sadly, we usually end up driving through for the Lard-Burger Special or the Cholesterol Combo. I’ve thought about saving time and applying the burger directly to my hips. I hate to think about it, but we all know it’s probably better for us to toss the burger and eat the bag.

Even if you have a path that’s well-worn one from one drive-through to another, let me share with you the exciting news that you can have perfect direction — even when you feel you’re running in circles. Yes, even when the hub-bub is making you crazy and you worry you might be a couple of fries short of a happy meal, you can have direction. Proverbs 3:6 says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Verse five gives us the secret: Trust. Not trust in what we can plan or figure out on our own, but whole-hearted trust in the Lord and His plan for our path. “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (1Chronicles 16:11).

Here are some worthy goals for us:

• to trust Him whole-heartedly,
• to acknowledge Him in all we do,
• to seek Him for strength and
• to see everything we do as an offering.

I’ve added a couple of personal goals for myself.

• First, to use my minivan time as prayer time. You can, too. Just don’t close your eyes.
• Secondly, I’m planning at least one home-cooked meal (my boxed version) for my family. You may see a slight dip in the stocks of the major fast food chains. That’s OK. I have bigger fish sticks to fry.

Do you need to learn how to take quiet time? Read about developing the discipline of spending quality time with God and how to recover when your personal quiet time has fallen by the wayside.