Sowing Donuts

Can you imagine riding a bike 60 miles per hour while eating donuts? Roy Wehling can. Well, sort of.

Wehling won the annualTour de Donutin Staunton, Illinois, a couple of years ago, riding his bike 30 miles in 31 minutes...which averages out to being almost 60 miles per hour.

Except that's not really the "hole story," as it were. Contestants got to take five minutes off their total time for every donut they ate during the race. Roy finished in a little more than two hours, but he wolfed down eighteen donuts while he was at it!

Roy had eaten nine donuts in the race a year earlier. "This year," he said, "I tried to double my donuts and have a good road time."

Eating 18 donuts while riding your bike 30 miles is quite an impressive feat, though something tells me many of us would leave some of those donuts on the side of the road, if you know what I mean.

I was reminded of that story last week when "National Donut Day" arrived, and all the photos began showing up on social media of people eating their free donuts. I have been eating especially light and healthy these days, so it didn't do me any favors seeing everyone else riding their sugar high, enjoying those Krispy Kremes. Later, I saw that a couple of people posted a chart on Facebook showing how much time on the treadmill would be required to burn off the calories of a single donut, or even several. It didn't bother to mention how many miles you would have to ride your bike to break even from eating a dozen and a half donuts.

I remember a few years ago, when I first starting trying to get in a little better physical condition, when the light came on for me (without the benefit of a chart) that when I thought it through, eating some things was just not worth the effort it would require on the back side (no pun intended) to work off those calories. And as I have been working hard over the past month to drop some weight and get in better shape, I have consciously had to choose not to eat some things I would have enjoyed.

The moral of the story: be sure your donuts will find you out, or at least something like that. But that doesn't just apply to donuts eaten and calories burned, it applies to so many things in life. The choices we make all have consequences, for good or for bad, and we can be assured that we will inevitably have to pay for many of the "instant gratification" choices we make. As the old motor oil commercial used to say, "you can pay me now, or pay me later."

That truth applies especially in our Christian walk, even as we live in and by the grace of God. In perhaps the most grace-based epistle that the apostle Paul wrote--to the church at Galatia--he still reminded his first-century readers (and us too) of the simple principle of the harvest:

"Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:7-9)

So, even as you rest in God's grace this week, be sure you are sowing the seeds of good choices, knowing that in due time the Lord will reap a harvest of good if you do not give up. I'm praying for you, as I trust you are for me, and look forward to seeing you on Sunday, morning and evening.

--Pastor Ken

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