Comfort Food

You know what I’ve realized about times of crisis?  The first place I run to get some comfort?  The kitchen.  Yea, you got it – I need comfort food.  Anyone out there who can relate?  Go on.  You don’t have to be shy.  Give a shout out for comfort food. 

Perfect instance?  Last night.  My son, bless his darn little soul, wanted to grow his dinosaurs - you know the ones that expand in water.  Apparently, he assumed the dinosaur would grow to be ten feet long.  So he left them in the sink to grow some more.  The problem?  He left the water running, and we didn’t discover the ensuing crisis until at least twenty minutes had passed. 

Thankfully, my husband heard something out of the ordinary, “What’s boiling he asked,” “Nothing,” I responded “There's nothing on in the kitchen.”  Five seconds later, “Oh [expletive], oh [expletive.]”  My husband rarely swears in front of the kids so when he did, I knew we were in trouble.  Running after him, I realized the problem immediately.  We had a flooded bathroom.  The telltale signs were the water stains beginning to form on our ceiling.  The first thing I wanted to grab as I chased my husband up the stairs?  Chocolate.  Yup, at that moment of crisis, I needed me a little chocolate fix. 

In fact, there were certain Girl Scout Cookies in the freezer calling to me, ‘Nici, we’re here for you, we’ll take all that stress you’re feeling away.’  I sooo wanted to grab those cookies and shove them in my mouth as fast as possible.  Only I was too busy gathering buckets and towels to have time to raid the freezer.  At least for the moment. 

When the dripping had mostly stopped, the cravings came fast and hard.  I was ready to grab half a pack of those Girl Scout treats and devour them in less than sixty.  (That’s seconds, not minutes.)  In fact, I was somewhat upset with myself that I didn’t have the really good stuff on hand.  I needed a better stock of comfort food;  Ben and Jerry’s, or those little chips by the name of Frito.  I especially needed my standard candy bar favorite -  a Caramello.  But not a one of those treats was in the house to soothe my sorrowing soul.   At this point, I didn’t care.  Any sweet treat would do.  So I ran to the kitchen, pulled out the box of cupcakes (lucky for me there were leftovers from the Super Bowl party), and prepared to drown my sorrows in those sweet little cakes.

But, for just a moment, I hesitated and thought long and hard about something.  Would this cupcake, or rather cupcakes, for I was prepared to devour as many as it took to get a really good buzz, would they really provide the comfort I so desperately needed?  Sugar rush, yes, good feelings, yes, guilt, well that I could deal with later, but real comfort, the kind that would last?  The answer was a resounding, no.  The cupcakes would taste good going down, but they weren’t going to give me peace, or slow my spinning thoughts, or assure me that, in the end, everything was going to be okay.  No, my sweet treats would only provide temporary comfort - a short term fix followed by a sugar crash that would result in feelings of regret and guilt.

Why would I even stop to consider this you might question.  Who cares if it was only a temporary fix.  After all, don’t we all run to food when we need some comfort?  But the thing is I don’t want my comfort to come from a candy bar.  I want it to be better than that.  I don’t want a temporary fix.  I need the real deal.  I need God, my Father.  See, lately I’ve been thinking about the role of food in our lives.  We love.  We crave.  We adore food.  It’s our fast fix.  But I don’t think it was meant to be that way.  I really don’t.  After all what was the original sin all about?  Food.  And we’ve been struggling to keep it in perspective ever since. 

Philippians 3:19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.  Their mind is on earthly things.

Does that verse apply to me?  Yes, absolutely, and resoundingly, yes.  And I guess I’m at the point where I just don’t want it to be my life’s verse.  I want to keep food in perspective.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not going to rule out chocolate or some of the above named treats.  I just want to learn to enjoy what I eat and be satisfied with it.  Not always craving more, more, more, but being grateful for my portion, whatever it may be.  So the next time you run into a crisis and those salivary glands kick in, remember this truth.  Food will always fall short of the mark.  It will never be enough to satisfy our deepest cravings.  Those cravings were meant to lead us to God alone.