Nothin’ But Potatoes (click to comment)

We live in quite an age. There is very little now that isn’t a click away. Food can be delivered to your doorstep. You can shop from your couch, order pizza from your bathtub, have a face to face chat with your aunt in Zimbabwe and get advice on how to repair a hammock as you lay stunned on the grass in your backyard. Since things are so accessible, you’d think we’d get more done and have extra time to spend on life’s most meaningful activities, like reading my books. But the truth is, we’re wasting more time than ever. Discipline my friends is a rare and precious commodity these days.

This is why I admire people like Chris Voigt. As head of the Washington State Potato Commission, Chris was upset at a ruling that forbade low-income Americans from using food vouchers to purchase white potatoes. To protest, Chris ate nothing but potatoes—with herbs and oil for cooking—for 60 days. By the time his diet ended, Voigt had consumed 400 pounds of mashed, sliced, fried, roasted, cubed and fingerling potatoes–about 20 spuds a day. On Thanksgiving Day, Voigt created a “tur-tato,” a 5-pound chunk of mash, molded into the shape of a turkey, basted with olive oil and broiled. Ugh. But at the end of 60 days Chris says he felt great. He lowered his blood sugar, lost 21 pounds and is still an avid white potato eater to this day. Now, I won’t prescribe a potato binge, but I admire Chris’s determination and discipline.

Recently, I enjoyed time with some young guys who confessed that much of their free time is spent playing computer games. I love these guys, so don’t get me wrong, but we were made for so much more. I told them I’ve lived awhile and I have yet to hear someone say on their deathbed, “I wish I would have spent more time with Netflix or my iPad.” I said, “I haven’t written 26 books while watching each episode of Survivor.” They laughed, so I challenged them to see what they could accomplish by having the courage to be disciplined in their use of time, to “be imitators of God, as beloved children,” which is what Paul advises in Ephesians 5, “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

There is so much hope and joy to spread around the world, and those amazing people who do this, without exception, have sacrificed lesser things for a greater purpose. The simple discipline of time with God each day can bring joy to your life and the lives of others. Living well takes work but it’s worth it.

I’m still working on this. In fact, the pizza guy just rang the doorbell, it’s time to get out of the bathtub.