Capfulls! Hatfulls! Baskets full!
Bushels full! Barrels full! Barn floors full!
–and a little heap under the stairs!
   Adapted from an Apple Wassail, Devon, England               

My Dad’s family saved money by buying  apples by the bushel. The problem with buying so many apples is that they start to go bad. One apple over ripening causes others to ripen more quickly. So the rule in my father’s family was, “Eat the bad apples first.” Dad complained they never had a good apple.

Somehow I adopted eating the bad apples first as a way of life. Some of it makes practical sense–do your work first and then have fun. But there’s another aspect that isn’t so healthy, like working so hard to prepare for an event that you’re too exhausted to enjoy the event when it arrives.

There’s a strain in Christianity that suggests if you enjoy something too much, it must be sinful. And worse, if something hurts or you don’t like it, it must be good for you. I don’t think that’s really a Christian attitude, but it’s hard to shake that approach.

Few things are entirely evil. St. Augustine taught that things are good to varying degrees. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a lesser good unless it displaces a higher good. Nothing wrong with playing a computer game unless that means you don’t get your homework done. It’s a matter of getting the balance right at the right time.

It’s OK to eat a good apple. If they start going bad, maybe the solution is to buy fewer apples.

Read Psalm 128:1-2 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne