Susan Beckett

What’s the strangest thing you ever remember eating? My youngest daughter, at age two, tried to eat a worm, and my husband once ate chocolate-covered crickets; but neither of those comes close to what Michel Lotito devoured! According to funfactz.com, between 1959 and 1997, Michel ate almost 9 tons of inedible and dangerous junk. Among other things, he consumed eleven bicycles, seven shopping carts, a metal coffin, a cash register, a washing machine, a TV, and 66 feet of chain. Then he decided to tackle a big-ticket item; he ate an entire airplane - an old Cessna - which took him 2 years to consume. Michel died in 2007 at the age of 57, the official cause of death being a heart attack. I don’t know - 57 is incredibly young - could he perhaps have been consuming “junk food” that, in the end, took him out?!

How many of you have ever had to referee verbal squabbling between two children hurling slaps back and forth regarding fairness and justice. You hear it all the time - “That’s not fair! He took the last cookie,” or “That’s not fair - she went first last time,” etc. It’s noteworthy that even little children seem to have a built-in sense of fairness and justice!

There was once a church pastor who used to give an impassioned, exciting altar call which would end with this ear-catching line — “Come to Jesus and let Him wreck your life.” Gets your attention, doesn’t it?! I actually pondered that simple line for quite sometime before it really sunk in. He was right - Jesus really does wreck your life when you come to Him. He wrecks your old life and sets you on a fresh path with new purposes, passions, and principles. All good! I like how C.S. Lewis puts it, “If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions…then I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely imaginary.” True - and this journey is a process!

It’s hard if not impossible these days to find anyone who hasn’t heard the term “fake news.” But as I was mulling over this fairly new tag, I thought that, in fact, fake stuff has been around for quite a long time. Think about it - we have fake jewelry, fake meat, fake grass, fake Christmas trees, and even fake “people” riding in the passenger seats of cars driving in carpool lanes. Strange sight, I’m sure!

I’m not sure this exact scenario has ever happened to you, but here’s my sad tale of woe. I’m getting ready to go out - I get dressed, fix my hair, put on my makeup, (stick with me here men) feed the dogs, feed myself, and off I go. I talk to a ton of people, but upon arriving home, I happen to glance in the mirror and notice a big, red streak of bright red lipstick across my front tooth. OMG! I instantly flash back in my mind - “How many people did I talk to and why didn’t anyone say something?”