Value Meal

Coke or Water?

Have you ever ordered the value meal without the drink?  I mean, walk into a Krystal or McDonalds and order the “Number 1” but when they ask what you want to drink, just choose water.  Not bottled water.  Not sparkling water.  Just tap water.  Water you could get for free.  It may seem silly, but it’s hard for me to do.  Water is what I want.  Water is the most healthy choice.  But I paid for a “Number 1” meal and that often includes a free or almost free Coke . . . a Coke which is actually more valuable . . . a Coke that actually costs the restaurant to provide to me.  I want my Coke because that’s what I paid for.   Ordering the combo meal and selecting water to drink is like getting the all-you-can-eat buffet and then getting just half a plate of salad.  I did it the other day and walked away feeling like I had won some kind of internal battle.

I’ve tried to figure out why this bugs me, and I think it relates to a feeling of missed opportunity and a sense of value influenced by the world.  I had an opportunity to get something most people would consider more valuable than water, and I passed it up.  I could have had nice, tasty, fizzy, exciting option “A” but instead, I chose plain old common option “B”.  I did it because option “B” was what was best for me.  And besides that, I wasn’t even that enthused about getting sugary, calorie filled option “A”.

This whole episode has got me wondering about other options in my life.  How many other “option As” am I living with simply because it’s what the world values most?  Choices for careers, possessions, attitudes, how I spend my time . . .  The world has a way of defining the “most valuable” option for us, but is it what we really want?  Is it what would be best for us?  Is it what will make us most happy and fulfilled in the long run?  I am reevaluating my choices these days.  With God’s help, I want to choose wisely.  I want to choose the things that have value, not because everyone else seems to think so, but because God thinks so.  Choosing based on the world’s value proposition instead of God’s would be the real missed opportunity.

So, if you know me and sometimes wonder why I choose “option B” when the world would have said “option A” is better, please consider one thing.   Value, like beauty, is often times in the eye of the beholder.  Or perhaps, it’s a little farther down.  Maybe value truly resides, in the heart.

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
  – Collossians 2:16-17  NKJV