Stick Shift

(Proverbs 24:13 KJV)  My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:

The contemporary mantra is that sugar is bad for you.  I am not on that bandwagon except to observe that just about anything in excess is bad for you.  To me refined sugar is simply taking something that occurs naturally in our world and extracting it because it brings pleasure.  There is nothing wrong with the “sweet” (4966) things of life. 

Sin comes into life when we take the gifts of God and misuse them.  That can be in gluttony and excess.  In this chapter we are told to enjoy honey.  In the next chapter, in verses 16 and 27 we are warned not to overdo it.  Think of your after dinner mint like your medication.  Just because one pill encourages health it does not follow that twenty will make you even better.

Misuse can also be in avoiding what God has declared good.  Sweets?  Meat?  Marriage?  How many other blessings have been proscribed in the quest for a holiness that is not of God?

So?  Moderation, timing and balance are keys to an upright life.  Although they can be developed, for many of us they will never be like an automatic transmission.  The interaction of a clutch, brake and throttle will always be with us.