Wednesday, May 25, 2011

How Do Ya Like Me Now, Betty Crocker?

The fast food industry is an empire built on instant gratification.  Our society loves instant -- instant potatoes, instant auto tags.  When I was a kid we had jars of popcorn.  You had to get a pot, put in a little bit of oil, wait for it to heat to just the right temperature, put in the popcorn kernels, and wait until the very last pop.  If your oil was too hot or too cool?  Do over.  My kids would pass out if they had to wait for all that today!


We've even found incredible ways of improving on "instant."  As a kid, if I wanted to see The Wizard of Oz (Strike that, I never wanted to see The Wizard of Oz) -- but if I wanted to see Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, I had to wait until it came around on the Late Night Movie Show again, and hope I'd be allowed to stay up and watch it, or at least, Mom would be asleep and I could sneak it.  Then along came cable!  With channels that were nothing but movies, it increased our chances, like, tenfold!  Then, the end-all-to-beat-all, video.  Ooh, aah.  You could go to the video store (most were open 'till 11 on weekends!) and choose from a plethora of movies -- Drama, Action, Kids, Horror. Our video store in South Philadelphia even had two floors!  It was like Bass Super Stores for couch potatoes!


Then it happened.  The cable industry rebounded with "On Demand."  Then "Netflix."  Now Smart-phones make it possible to watch a movie anytime, anywhere -- instantly!

And yet...

It's still not as instant as the justification supplied us through the death of Christ on the cross.  The second -- the instant we turn our eyes to Jesus, we are His, He is ours -- and all that it brings with it.  Now that's "instant!"

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