What I Learned By Killing My Fritos

“But, the servant of the Lord must not strive…” – II Timothy 2:24

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Yesterday, to ease my mid-afternoon drowsiness, I reached for my Fritos. I’m currently running low on this favorite snack, so I had to reach deeply into the bag and carefully draw out my generous handful. (I despise ending up with three broken pieces, lodged between four stiff fingers – so I intentionally start by grabbing a huge bunch, to offset the inexorable attrition.)

Predictably, halfway between the top of the bag and the napkin on my desk, several fried strips began to slip. Instinctively, I tensed, squeezing the tenuous pile. The crispy handful exploded into a shattered pile across my floor, my desk, and my trash can. Annoyed, I salvaged the few greasy bits that I could. Within seconds, the honest thought entered my head, “You shouldn’t have responded like that. Of course it wouldn’t do any good.”

What ‘it’? No, not my grumpiness. My tensing – my grasping – when something began to slip away.

Think about it. Nothing in nature responds positively to a tightening of control. A knotted rope will only get tighter, the more you tug at it. You must release it. A baby bird will become weak and eventually die, if it is hand-fed for too long. You must allow hunger and independence to fuel each other as the birdie grows – in the way that God designed.

If I had continued to gingerly, carefully, loosely hold the clump of Fritos, probably they would have made it to my desktop. But, no. I gripped tighter, and the entire pile collapsed.

As well it should. That’s how the world works. It’s how the world was made to work. God purposefully left us these innumerable, clever physical reminders of powerful spiritual truths. So, if I don’t acknowledge this particular truth, and loosen my grip on things, both physical and non-physical, then that’s my problem.

Granted, I’d could lie and say that my instinctively-grasping attitude is right; That I’m nobly ‘persevering against obstacles,’ virtuously ‘striving to achieve a goal.’ Some people make this argument. Those people say that Nature made us this way.

But, no. That’s clearly not the case. Rather, I am defying Nature – and deservedly losing. That’s all. And it’s palpably obvious, when I stop rationalizing, and simply watch the physical reality of perfectly good food crumbling in the hands of an impatient human.