Guilty Pleasures

It occurred to me during my recent trip to Peru that it is time to admit to some guilty pleasures. This rather obtuse thought may have been provoked by how much I enjoyed being back in the Andes. However, it could also be that 16 hours on a bus (no matter how beautiful the scenery) brings out some socially indefensible behavior in my personality.

A guilty pleasure is something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilty for enjoying it. Often, the "guilt" involved is simply fear of others discovering one's rather lowbrow tastes, rather than actual moral guilt. The kind of clothing we enjoy, music, and food (especially foods we know are unhealthy) can be examples of guilty pleasures.

Between Su and me, we have several guilty pleasures.

We enjoy and even relish eating Blue Bell Ice Cream. Now, if you are one of our readers who lives “up North” and has not spent significant time in the Southland during the past 35 years, you do not know “that of which I speak.” However, for those of you in Texas, Louisiana or Arkansas, you know that a man my age has no rational defense for imbibing in this particular pleasure. Just for the record, a half cup of Blue Bell “Tin Roof” has 190 calories, 10 grams of fat and 22 grams of carbs.

I am salivating just thinking about the next time I can have a bowl… and not feeling nearly as guilty as I should.

I am not sure if Su’s fondness for cotton candy can be truly defined as a guilty pleasure. You see, she has no shame in eating it or being seen eating it in public. On the other hand, I feel an almost immediate need to wash my hands and brush my teeth when she buys some – and I do not even touch the stuff!

I have one particular guilty pleasure related to what I listen to on my long trips.

For reasons that I cannot fully explain, I enjoy listening to J. Vernon McGee. Dr. McGee’s five year “Bible Bus Trip” continues to make me smile 21 years after he took that bus “up yonder.” Some of you are grimacing just thinking about listening to some of his rather unusual verbal mannerisms. Believe me, I understand. I guess that is why actually downloading him on to my iPod is a guilty pleasure.

Thinking of trips, I enjoy reading rather low-brow detective and spy novels. On this recent trip I read one about a CIA operative basically forgotten by the agency after infiltrating some radical groups in Afghanistan. I think you get the general gist and the reason this could only be classified as a guilty pleasure.

If making people listen to something can be a guilty pleasure, I confess to deriving great joy from playing saxophone and harmonica duets with Su. I am not positive, but we may be the only people in the world that play this particular combination of musical instruments. I have never been sure if the look on people’s faces when they hear us is that of mild interest or some type of catatonic defense mechanism.

One of my greatest guilty pleasures is having a day off with Su to read, talk, eat and read some more. Yes, although some of you feel I do not partake in this particular guilty pleasure enough, I do enjoy it immensely.

As I thought about some of these guilty pleasures it also occurred to me that Christians do not do well with pleasure. We tend to have two responses to it. First, we think it is our “God-given right” and therefore we are protected when we over do it. Unfortunately, consuming too much Blue Bell tends to hang around in all the wrong places. Second, we doubt that we deserve it and look on it with either disdain or suspicion. Amazingly enough, there are times we attempt to “out holy” God as we reject His divinely given gifts.

In Genesis 18:12 we read, “So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” (ESV). Of course, the answer was “yes” because nothing is too hard for God.