Day 050: Focus on the Beneficial

"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful.  All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."  1 Corinthians 6:12

Imagine being in a buffet.  There are so many foods all around you, with steam rising from under their trays.  There are lots of trays displayed, some with lots of care given to their presentation: a pristine white bowl, a colorful assortment of vegetables and fruits, the heaps of meat.  When you walk into the main dining hall, your waiter encourages you to walk straight to all the food, not even giving you a second to sit down.  You grab a plate, and you pick whatever food you'd like.

That's how this above passage speaks to me.  We are placed on this earth with so many things available for us.  Yet, not everything is good for us.  In the buffet, there are lots of fried foods and sweets that might taste good for the moment but give you health issues later on down the line - a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.  There are also lots of vegetables spread out, some in delicious salads, all of which would help us be more awake, aware, and lean.  In the same way, there are so many conflicting ideologies out there, some of which are helpful for us (such as by encouraging us to become better people) and others which are detrimental for us (opinion columns about lives that wouldn't affect us at all).

I think that Lent can be a time to try to focus ourselves on the things that are beneficial for us.  In the long run, they will help us - some for this lifetime, and others for the life to come.