"Fix your eyes upon Jesus....." Hebrews 12:2
When I was growing up in Stockton there were a couple of "ALL YOU CAN EAT" places. One was The Viking Hus, which was located on Hammer Lane and Lower Sacramento Road. It was $1 for all you could eat, and as long as a customer was willing to drink water the total including tax was $1.05. Then there was a place in Lincoln Center called Smorgy Boys. This was $1.65 or ten cents per year old up to twelve. I know it was a little more but even as a 9 or 10 year old, I knew the food and the atmosphere was a major step up - PLUS they had all you can eat soft serve ice cream and both chocolate and strawberry sauce. To a guy my age the extra money was worth it, and when you took into consideration my age, it was even closer in cost. But only on a special occasion would my parents spend the extra money.
There were also a couple of other all you can eat places downtown - Sampan Chinese food on Market Street and Gong Lee's on Harding Way. Those were incredible food places, and there is no way that my parents could put together those flavors of Chinese food. But the cost was a step up $1.95 for kids under 12 and $2.35 for adults at Gong Lee's. It might seem strange that I remember the prices, but it is only because I tried to talk my parents into spending the extra money. The more expensive places really were a step up in cost and flavor. It had to be a special treat for us to go downtown.
Years later the next buffet I remembered was Ole Frijole', which took over the space formerly used by Smorgy Boys. The Mexican food they served was not that great tasting, but it was all you could eat - and that fit my preferences. And the price mattered to me.
The truth is I need to admit that I am a value-oriented food consumer. Not taste, not quality, not tradition, not healthy, not freshness - but value. I am one of those people that if there was an advertisement on the window for a discount, that's what I ordered. Two burgers at McDonalds was a much better deal for volume and cost - than a big mac. I am not saying a big mac is healthy, I am admitting that cost and volume were most important.
So, in my growing up years - me thinking about a five star food place, had way too much cost for the volume. The quality didn't matter, just the cost. Great quality, but the cost...
Let's change the focus to what the world has to offer and what God has to offer. Short term satisfaction appears to have great value - fun, good feelings, and relationships reinforcing short term pleasures. The King of Kings calls us to think long term and see things from an eternal perspective.
In Luke 9:23, Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." That's thinking long term - that's thinking quality over quantity. This verse has given me great insights into life. The temporary, the short term, the quick deal, the volume thinking, are not the way to look at life. The eternal, the rewards from God are most important.
There is a beautiful song that sums it up for me. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
