As a culture we have a strong affection for fast food and for good reason - fast food tastes great. I’ve heard health-conscious people smugly say, “Fast food tastes disgusting.” That is incorrect. Fast food is disgusting because of what it’s made out of, but it tastes amazing! That’s one of the main reasons our waist lines are growing faster than Justin Bieber’s rap sheet.  

While fast food tastes great in the moment, it takes a serious toll later on. You feel physically awful after you eat it. No one can claim ignorance - we all know fast food is essentially poison for our bodies. But there’s also an emotional toll. Maybe you’re familiar with what I would call “fast food guilt?” It’s the guilt that sets in immediately after eating something you know is bad for you - Big Mac, double quarter pounder with cheese, or in my case, a dozen donuts from Spunky Dunkers. Fast food tastes great in the moment, but takes a toll later on.  

This is why sin is like fast food.

I am terrified of snakes. Not just dangerous snakes, poisonous snakes, or large snakes. I hate all snakes. Before you write this off as a mere phobia, at least part of this fear is founded in the fact that some snakes are legitimately dangerous. The Humane Society reports that hundreds of people have been attacked and at least 12 people have been killed by pet pythons since 1990.  

Here's one sad example. In June of 2010 a Nebraska man took his 9 foot long, 25 pound red-tailed boa constrictor out to show his friend. Tragically, this man’s python attacked and killed him just as he took it from its cage. Can you imagine this? He had undoubtedly done this countless times before. He had raised this snake, handled it, and fed it, but on this day it turned on him and killed him.

There’s an important lesson in this: