Too Much Good Is Just Bad

I hope there are some sushi fanatics reading this blog, because today we are talking about WHASSSAAAAABBBBBIIIII, more commonly known as wasabi.

You know what wasabi is, that green stuff you put in your soy sauce to dip sushi in. Now I love wasabi on my sushi. It is delicious, and the only reason to buy little slices of fish for $9 a roll (if you’re lucky). My father loves wasabi, my uncle, my cousins, but the only one who doesn’t LOVE wasabi is my brother. I mean, he likes it okay, but he doesn’t need it smothering every bite of his sushi or anything. However, one time in a desperate measure to fit in my brother made the claim, “I love wasabi,” he took a spoon full of wasabi threw it on his plate and added a splash of soy. The rest of my family looked at him like he was crazy and anxiously awaited what was surely about to be a youtube moment. My brother took his first piece dunked it in the “liquid” and took a big old bite. Instantly you could tell he hated it, but he was determined to not be proven a fool. He continued, and powered through that plate of sushi as my cousins and I watched in amazement and slight disgust. Tears poured out of his eyes as his body yelled, “STOP STOP!” and he choked as he pushed out the words, “mmm, it’s so…good”. I realized that this wasabi was literally killing my brother, I gave it a try and instantly hated it. My whole family gave it a taste and none of us asked for a second. That was the day it became clear, you in fact could have too much wasabi.

This stands true for all that the world has to offer. You can have too much of anything. See it isn’t that the wasabi was evil or bad by design. It is quite good in the right amounts, but too much of it is terrible and I would imagine takes years off your life (okay maybe not but can someone do a school project on this?). Like wasabi, there are many things in our lives that aren’t evil or displeasing to God, but too much of them can drive us away from God. Video games, TV shows, shopping, eating, friends, work, boyfriends, girlfriends, JUST ABOUT ANYTHING.

For instance, my wife Erin and I love to do TV show marathons. Now it’s not that the shows we watch are evil or of the devil, but seven straight hours of LOST is not the healthiest way to spend our time. Or football, nothing wrong with it, but is it really God honoring to spend 15 hours in a weekend watching football? I know there were whole weekends where the only prayers or praises towards God were about the Chicago Bears. That is not honoring to God. We need to make time to get away, alone, quiet and be with God. And sometimes the things of this world, good or bad, can hold us back from doing that.

I have also been held back by friends. Now, my friends in college were the best. They loved the Lord, they wanted to grow with Him, and we wanted to grow together. But there were days we spent 16 hours together and spent 0 hours with God. Too much of a good thing, is just bad.

Check out 1 Kings 19: 1-9. To better understand it you may need to read 1 Kings 18: 16-46. Think about some of these questions…

When Elijah was hurting and depressed, what did he do? How does it help? Is it possible for us to do what Elijah did?

When you don’t spend that time with God, what do you do instead (let’s call it Activity X)? Why do you chose Activity X?

Can there be too much of Activity X? What happens when you “spend” too much time with Activity X?

Challenge: Look at Activity X and make a commitment that you will spend quiet, still, alone time with God before you ever start Activity X.