Watching Out For False Counterfeits

We have a reclining chair that sits in our living room.  On the occasional evenings where I can just relax, I like to read in this chair.  The problem is unlike my wife who can read for hours on end, this chair just sucks me in and before you know it, I am asleep.  The snoozing is great, but the problem is if I take a one hour or so nap on this chair, I have trouble getting to sleep at night in bed.  The chair looks good on the outside, feels good once I ‘m in it and before you know it, I am caught in its grips.  The bed on the other hand was designed for my maximum, long-term comfort over the full course of the night.  The bed is the real thing – the chair is the false counterfeit. 

I am reminded that so many things in life are designed by God for our real enjoyment.  Things like sex in marriage or even eating healthy.  Along comes our crazy culture and it magnifies sex as attractive in its own right but used out of the context of a healthy marriage.  It is the equivalent to the chair – alluring, maybe even attractive for the short haul, but definitely menacing for the long haul.  The average consumer eats 1200 calories during the Super Bowl which starts in three hours.  I know all of my hard work of trying to get my weight down may go out the window in the three plus hours of the Super Bowl.  There are many false counterfeits out there that look and feel great in the short haul but rob us of enduring pleasure and joy.  We have to look at them in the light of the real thing and be able to tell the difference.  The long haul is always best.