JANUARY 21, 2020

"And the tree is known by its fruits For, as he loves God, so he keeps his commandments;'

not only some, or most of them, but all, from the least to the greatest...

Whatever God has forbidden, he avoids..."

(John Wesley, "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection")

Oh, the agony!  I gorged myself on the fruity sour gummy bears that I had purchased for my husband.  He enjoyed them in Germany as a youth when his father was stationed there, and are one of his favorite candies.  When I started waking up dizzy, slamming into walls and feeling sicker and sicker, I groaned, not wanting another doctor visit: my husband's doctor visits are enough.  But if this continued, I would not even be able to drive him to his appointments.  Then in my fuzzy brain, I started linking point A to point B.  

I am gluten intolerant.  Believe me, it is a real thing.  It is so horrible that I avoid so much food that I long to eat.  As I moaned in my bed, I held up the gummy bear bag and read the ingredients.  Low and behold, wheat is one of the top ingredients!  Voila!   Let's just leave the gummy part off and just say that I was mauled by bears.  

The stuff of nightmares!

All I could think was what if I was pulled over while driving my husband to the cancer center, and I couldn't pass the sobriety tests:  "Officer, the gummy bears are making me like this!"

It might not be in the Bible, "Thou shalt not eat gummy bears," but it is for me, something God evidently forbids for my well-being.  I won't even go to the verses in Proverbs that address gluttony.  

"Do not feed (me) the bears."