Today, I ate eel for my “first.”
I had never eaten eel before. I’ve caught an eel or two
while fishing. This is not a
particularly attractive animal. They
really are ugly. It looks too much like a snake for me. Eels kind of give me the “heebie jeebies.” Once in a while we would catch one while
fishing and typically, that particular one the Lord would see fit to call him
home.
Tonight, Laura and I ate at a Japanese Sushi Bar
restaurant. While looking over the menu,
I saw bar-b-q eel. It was a sushi kind of thing. You can get 2 for
$3.25 so Laura decided to join in on my “first” and try one with me. The eel was on some rice. Let’s just say that the rice was the best
part of this meal. Laura said it tasted
too fishy and only ate one bite (there is really only about 2 bites to the
little eel roll/rice thing). I ate all
of mine, but declined to finish hers for her.
She had ordered hibachi beef and I had ordered hibachi shrimp and we
both enjoyed our main course much better than we did the eel. Still, it was an interesting “first.”
There were other first options besides eel
Bar-b-q eel sushi
After I ate the eel, the thing that I thought about was how
I really don’t like eels. So today, I
struck back. I ate one. There are times when there are things in my
life that are ugly, unattractive, and not helping. You probably know what I’m referring to. The ugly and unattractive things can be
impatience, anger, talk that is not edifying, sour attitudes, and things like
those. At times, I’ve just sort of let these things sit there in my life without
really doing much about it. I knew they
were not helpful or a very good witness for Jesus. They were not helping me to have a strong
family. There comes a time where I have
to fight back in the power of the Spirit and do something about it. Those ugly things will not usually just leave without
a fight. I have to be filled with the Spirit and fight back. Ephesians 6:10 says, “Be strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might.” I need
to hate the ugly and unattractive things in my life like I hate catching an
eel. I need to hate it enough to do
something about it. Sin should repulse
me.
The good news is that God has given us spiritual weapons to
fight back with. We are not alone in our fight against the sin that steals our
joy in the Lord. We have the weapons of
prayer, faith, the Bible, and godly friends that can help us. When we do win a battle, we need to be sure
that we allow God to fill that place where that ugly thing used to be with
something beautiful. Instead of the
anger, we can have joy. Instead of the impatience, we can have peace. Instead of the sour attitude, we can have a
loving attitude. The things that God
wants to fill our lives with are so much better than the ugly stuff. That is
why I ate one small piece of eel, but I ate a lot of shrimp tonight. You can
know that there is one less eel in the world today. Of course, there are more to deal with just
like we have more ugly stuff to deal with. Starting today to get rid of the
ugly stuff is way better than starting tomorrow.
I read a quote a few
days back that said, “God’s will is what you would choose if you knew all the
facts.” Let’s choose His way over the
ugly!
Choosing the abundant life
Barry
3 things I thank God for today
1. Grilled shrimp
2. I live in a place where I have a lot of food choices
3. Knees
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