Of Chocolate

I promised you all a post about chocolate, so here it is! And in case you're wondering, this is not the "Chocolate is bad for you, never, ever eat it" post that you might expect from someone who prefers oatmeal over cupcakes, and smoothies over milkshakes. On the other end of the spectrum, it isn't the, "Chocolate is health food. Eat if for breakfast, lunch and dinner" post that you all deep down are probably hoping for. (I for one certainly wouldn't mind finding out that chocolate is actually the health equivalent of a pomegranate) So enough of telling me you what this post ISN'T. Let's dive into a world of sugar in rich chocolate form.

In case you're wondering, this isn't a healthified version of chocolate cake. This is good old rich chocolate cake with gobs of creamy chocolate frosting. This is chocolate cake with a cup of oil and at sugar in quantities you'd rather not know. This is is the cake piled high with real milk chocolate curls.This cake is by no means "health food". In fact, last year, I would have considered this food a "bad food". A food so bad that I would very (and I mean very) rarely let touch my lips. I would calculate the exact amount of calories, grams of sugar, and grams of fat, and somehow that cake just wasn't as appealing. But it was more than unappealing. It was something I feared. It was something I cried over if I had to eat it after (and often while) I was eating it. I had made rules that I compulsively followed. Not eating chocolate was one of them.

Crazy? I didn't think so! Fear had me in its grips. I wasn't free. I wasn't free to enjoy an occasional dessert. I wasn't free to eat with my friends. Now this may seem totally extreme, and totally unrelatable. You probably don't shudder when you eat a bite of cake. But, I think we all have areas that we can be held in bondage if we aren't careful. And some are pretty subtle. (Satan can be pretty sneaky.)

In Galations 5:1, it says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

So often I think we can either abuse or forget the freedom we have in Christ. We have been freed from our sins! We have been freed from our world's standards of what makes us okay.  We are free! But so often, in one way or another, we let our thoughts and behaviors slip into the old. Little thoughts, little choices to just focus on the wrong thing, can ultimately lead to slavery. Slavery of our thoughts, which will ultimately lead to slavery of our behavior.

How does this all relate to chocolate? Well, for one thing, by all means eat chocolate! No guilt needs to be associated with it.  BUT (and here's the nutrition note you were all waiting for) everything in moderation, ya'll! This (sniffle sniffle) means you shouldn't eat doughnuts every day for breakfast. It doesn't mean that chocolate is the new health food to replace all others. Chocolate on occassion is great. Don't abuse the freedom we have in Jesus to eat it in excess! But don't forget that it is just fine every once and a while. :) It won't hurt you, and that piece of cake isn't worth the energy of feeling guilty over.