I ate at McDonalds for lunch today.\u00a0 I proudly marched right in and I didn’t even have a kid with me.\u00a0 I even liked the food.<\/p>\n
There.\u00a0 I’ve said it.\u00a0 What almost no one else will admit.\u00a0 Ask just about anybody about McDonalds and they will get this high-brow look on their face as they tip their head ever so slightly back, looking down their nose at you.\u00a0 “McDonalds?\u00a0 Uuggh!\u00a0 We hardly ever go there unless the kids insist.”\u00a0 It’s what they say, but I don’t think it’s what they do.\u00a0 If it were, McDonalds would be a lot less busy at lunch, and nearly everybody there would be under the age of 10.<\/p>\n
At lunch today I saw kids and parents, single people, business people, people in ties, people in uniforms, hippies, yuppies, red necks and high brows. They were all there, but none of them like McDonalds. \u00a0If you ask them, none of them eat there.<\/p>\n
So what makes people this way? \u00a0Why do we all refuse to admit that we actually like to eat at McDonalds\u00a0on occasion?\u00a0 I think I know. \u00a0It’s pride.\u00a0 We think people will think less of us if they know we indulge in a\u00a0Big Mac, so we fall\u00a0victim to an issue that got the Pharisees in so much trouble over 2000 years ago. \u00a0A pet sin that grew so ugly it demanded Jesus’ death rather than admit its own existence.\u00a0 The sin that tries to hide all others.<\/p>\n
That site where they serve all those x-rated pictures?\u00a0 Uuggh!\u00a0 I never go there! \u00a0Juicy gossip? \u00a0Are you kidding me? \u00a0That’s so unhealthy!\u00a0 I would never consume that!\u00a0 Dishonesty?\u00a0 Never.\u00a0 We meet our Christian friends at church then head to lunch for some holy fellowship.\u00a0 We pass right by the busy McDonalds, but nobody even suggests we go there.\u00a0 Why would we?\u00a0 Nobody eats at McDonalds.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: `I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’<\/em> I ate at McDonalds for lunch today.\u00a0 I proudly marched right in and I didn’t even have a kid with me.\u00a0 I even liked the food. There.\u00a0 I’ve said it.\u00a0 What almost no one else will admit.\u00a0 Ask just about anybody about McDonalds and they will get this high-brow look on their face as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[168,169,170],"class_list":["post-1293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc","tag-mcdonalds","tag-pride","tag-sin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1293"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1299,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293\/revisions\/1299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, `O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Luke 18:10-14 NLT<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"