Fried Green Tomatoes by Paula Roach

I am not a fan of tomatoes. In fact, it is safe to say I (used to) hate tomatoes. (Just don't tell my kids because we are not to use that word in my house). I had hated tomatoes for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, growing up, just about every meal we had included tomatoes in some form. Lasagna, goolosh, spaghetti, pasta dishes of all kinds... chili, pizza, the list goes on. I ate a lot of plain noodles or noodles with butter, cinnamon and sugar instead.

I hated tomatoes so much that I would have nothing to do with anything that even reminded me of tomatoes! I did not like them whole, pureed, or stewed. I did not like them sliced, diced, or dried. I did not like them fried and green or in any form... paste, ketchup, sauce or salsa. I simply despised any form of tomatoes. The smell, the texture, or anything that even reminded me of tomatoes was repulsive to me.

After my first son, Lofton, was born I had lots of baby weight to lose. It just wasn't coming off as quickly as I wanted. The first twenty came off within the first couple months but the last 40 was a slow process so I decided to go on the Nutri System diet. I ended up only liking the pasta dishes which seemed to have some sort of tomato sauce. My taste buds had changed! Now, though I still do not like tomatoes whole or in large chunks, I will eat tomatos in other forms. A few diced up small in pico and guacomole is delicious. A little bit in my chili is yummy. Fresh tomato sauce with a touch of pesto on some noodles is great. Some real Italian marinara sauce on some pizza is something I even crave!

Funny how our taste buds change over time. Something I hated for so many years I can now tolerate in small doses, especially if it is disguised by other tasty ingredients. Unfortunately, I think that is how many of us get toward sin as well. The obvious stuff, well, we may run from that but we slowly begin to tolerate some of the less obvious stuff. If it has just a little sin in it, well, no big deal. If it's paired up with some other great things, it's acceptable. Over time, things that may have once brought us to repentance, or broken our hearts are now creeping into our every day lives without a second thought.

The word of God tells us in several places to "Hate evil and cling to what is good". (Ro 12:9, Amos 5:15, Ps 97:10 to name a few!) In my experience with hate, (based on my strong feelings toward tomatoes :) ), hate means to run from anything that might resemble or remind you of that tomato. In other words, RUN from anything that even looks like sin, reminds someone of sin, smells like sin or has a hint of sin in the mix!

Philippians 1:12 tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. In the amplified, a favorite version of mine, it goes on to say  "timidly shrinking from whatever MIGHT offend God and discredit the name of Christ".

There are many things that could be pointed out from this verse but the one that impacted me years ago and I still hang on to today is the word "MIGHT". If it MIGHT have tomatoes in it, I wanted ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

If a particular action, thought process, behavior, attitude, movie, song, book, outfit... MIGHT be unpleasing to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ than I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

This is easier said than done. I am afraid that like tomatoes growing on me over time, to the point I not only tolerate them but in fact enjoy them in some recipes, sin has had the same impact on me and on the church.

What do you now tolerate that you used to call sin? Take it a step further, what do you now enjoy that you used to stear clear from because of your love for God and desire to be obedient to His Word? What gray areas are now acceptable in your life because over time life changed and you simply grew an appetite for them? OR SIMPLY, what areas of sin, small or big, do you need to develop a hate for and learn to run from?

No matter how we mask it, slice it, dice it or fry it. A tomato is still a tomato and sin is still sin.