By HAROLD KELLER / L’Observateur / November 9, 1998

Thursday morning, as I sat down to eat breakfast (grits and eggs), I couldn’t help but think of the poor people in Honduras. The death toll isanybody’s guess (9,000 to maybe 15,000). The devastation is hard tocomprehend. Here I sat in the comfort of my apartment, eating a hot meal,and thinking of the starving, homeless people not that far away.

As I thought about the disaster in Honduras, I was reminded of the following statement I’ve heard many times in the last year: “Life is not fair.” I know this statement is true, but I have to always focus on the factthat God is fair. My thoughts also went back to only a few months agowhen people complained because they lost electricity for a day or two.

(How we hate the smallest inconvenience.)I then remembered a retreat I attended a few years ago at which the retreat master spoke of the seven capital sins, namely: anger, envy, gluttony, greed, pride, lust and slothfulness. I was conscious of the factthat I was definitely guilty of six – anger, envy, greed, lust, pride and slothfulness. I never considered myself to be a glutton. The reason beingthat I’ve never been that much overweight. Many people guilty of this sinare not necessarily excessively overweight.

I realize now that I’ve been guilty many times of the sin of gluttony. InProverbs 23:21, the Bible says: “…for drunkards and gluttons becomepoor.” Webster’s dictionary defines a glutton as one who eats too much, agreedy person.

It’s been said that by the year 2030, everyone in America will be obese.

According to one article, the national epidemic of obesity is at such a crisis, it demands urgent attention by medical professionals, the government and the public. With the problem of obesity comes the effectson our health. Seventy-five percent of all diabetes cases in the U.S. can betraced to obesity. Fifty percent of all high-blood pressure cases arecaused by gluttony. High cholesterol levels are to blame on over-eating inat leas 50 percent of all cases.

The reason for the over-eating epidemic can be found in our culture of abundance and inactivity (slothfulness). One headline read: “Land of thefat, home of the the ‘supersized.'”While eating my breakfast Thursday morning, I felt guilty. I live in acountry with an abundance of everything. Most of us have abusedeverything with which we’ve been blessed. We have also forgotten to begrateful. We selfishly take care of our personal needs, not considering theleast fortunate.

I wonder how we in America would have handled the conditions that the people in Honduras are now experiencing.

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

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