Bananas

Not long after Martha and I married, I landed a job with the local Wal-Mart working in the photo department. One of the things that stuck with me from that experience is something that one of the assistant managers told us during orientation. He was trying to impress upon us the volume of sales of some items in the store. The example he used was bananas.

Evidently, this store sold hundreds of pounds of bananas each day. He posed the question to us: “Why do you think this is so?”

His answer?

“When you have kids, what do they like to eat? Bananas. They are soft and sweet. What do older folks like to eat? Bananas. While they can’t as easily chew other foods, bananas are soft enough for them to easily eat.”

I confirmed this line of logic in my mind by thinking about my great grandparents. I can remember going to visit them, and finding tons of banana peels strewn across the back yard (they were good ‘ole country folks). They ate a lot of bananas, but I had never thought about why.

Think about this: Is it possible that you are spiritually headed back to bananas? Now I don’t mean that you are going crazy, but is it that you are reverting back to some form of your spiritual immaturity?

The Hebrew writer’s words from chapter 5, beginning in verse 11 are famous. Verse 14 is especially poignant:

(14)  But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Is it possible that we can revert back to the point, spiritually speaking, that we can no longer handle solid food? Absolutely. How could someone get to that point? Disuse. Maturity, spiritually speaking, is not about age, but about use.

It is my prayer that you will continue to exercise those spiritual chewing muscles. After all, the admonition from Peter is a daily exercise:

2 Peter 3:18 NKJV
(18)  but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

~Daniel Howell