By DAWN REED
I have a problem with pie. Not all pie; berry and peach are my faves-and the banana cream pie Betty Greene makes. While I love pie, it doesn’t love me. It makes my stomach hurt every single time, but I push through it.
When my beloved brought an enormous bag of peaches home last week, I knew what was in my future! For the first few days I ate the fresh fruit with breakfast or as a snack. As the days passed and they ripened more and more, I had no choice but to make a pie to save them all.
I ate pie for supper two evenings with a cup of strong coffee. (You won’t find that on the food pyramid.) And then, this morning, the last piece began calling my name-loudly. I broke it down in my head that fruit is healthy, and butter and flour were like having a biscuit. I scooped it into a bowl as my coffee brewed. I was heading to the porch with my Bible. Pie, coffee, and Bible study. It doesn’t get much better than that!
My inner voice said, “Why do you eat things that will make you sick?” That voice gets on my nerves.
Those were similar words I tell the girls at the jail when we go for Bible study. Most of them, if not all, are there because of drugs. “Why do you keep doing things that will hurt you?” I ask.
Into the garbage my pie went.
I pulled out my Bible to continue studying Haggai (Take Courage by Jennifer Rothschild). Today’s focus was “Consider your Ways.” “What is your heart set on?” she asked. My heart had been set on pie!
I knew quite well that I if I had eaten it, I would be filled not only with peaches and crust, but also regret and frustration at my non-existent willpower. AND, I would have a stomachache. What am I? An idiot?
Haggai 1:5 reminded me, “Now this is what the LORD Almighty says, ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’” God’s Word truly is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12)! Only He could tie peach pie and words written around 500 BC, by a prophet many haven’t heard of! My heavenly Father was saying, “Dawn, don’t be dumb. Think about what you are doing.” What relates to pie can relate to many other things.
In the book of Haggai, God’s people had gotten their priorities mixed up. He was calling them to re-evaluate what was most important: “People! Think about what you are doing!” (my words). They were living in paneled houses, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the house of God was in ruins! Not bad people, they’d just lost their perspective. They had their hearts set on their own comfort, their own homes, their own piece of the pie-so to speak.
I have to ask: What do I have MY heart set on? Do I daily have my eyes, my heart set on pleasing God? Or myself? Do I have a habit of focusing on things that are not good for me?
In Colossians 3:1, Paul wrote: “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God...”
“Set my heart on things above…” Now, that’s a recipe I can really sink my teeth into with no regret!
Dawn Reed is a newspaper columnist and pastor's wife in Prestonsburg. Reach her at preacherswife7@yahoo.com
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