SPAM: It's what's for dinner.

I have a list of questions that haunts me. Questions that I randomly think of when I have nothing better to do than sit around and think about meaningless topics and even more meaningless questions that I will probably never be able to answer. One of those questions deals with SPAM. No, not the irritating emails that I get 500 times a day asking me to send $5,000 over to some poor lady in Morocco that was stranded there after her husband ran off with some king's daughter. I'm talking about the meat called SPAM (if you are of the school of thought that actually believes that the contents of that funny shaped can actually are meat). The question about SPAM that haunts my idle thoughts is "what IS that stuff and why would anyone eat it?"

I have invested a good deal of time into wondering what that rectangular/oval shaped food substitute truly is and why on earth anyone would actually eat it, then my father came along and asked me to compare SPAM to modern life. In that instant I felt like the heavens opened up at God Himself smacked me in the head with that huge "idea" light bulb that comic strips like to use when the characters have a mind boggling revelation.

Now I am sure that all of you are just dying to read what my amazing revelation about SPAM and our modern lives is, so I will tell you.

It's very simple. Modern life literally IS SPAM!

I know, it's a head scratching statement so please allow me to explain.

Spam is a concoction made up of chopped pork shoulder with a little bit of extra ham thrown in there. A modified potato starch is used as a binder. A little bit of salt and water is tossed in just because and sodium nitrate is used as a perservative. While I doubt anyone actually cares what the ingredient list of SPAM is, the point is that SPAM is not actually REAL meat. It contains meat but it cannot truly replace a good old fashioned T-bone or porkchop. Basically it is a fake meat.
Nutritionally, it has high calories, low protein, minimal carbs (no matter what Atkins says, you really do need them), nearly half the required daily value of sodium and fat, and next to nothing in the line of vitamins and minerals. For all intents and purposes SPAM adds absolutely nothing good to an individuals diet.
Lastly SPAM is basically designed for speed cooking. The main reason that most people buy and use SPAM (unless they are Hawaiian) is because they do not have time to cook real meat (or don't want to cook real meat).

With these basic facts established several parallels to life as we know it become painfully clear.

Fact one: SPAM is a "fake" meat. The "meat" of our lives are our friends and families. Unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to find "real" people anymore. Even within our families we are surrounded by the mentality that it is a "dog eat dog world" and people will do or say whatever they feel is neccessary to get what they want or what they feel they need. Essentially we are surrounded by fake people that we cannot rely on to give us the sustanance we need to have healthy relationships.

Fact two: SPAM basically has zero nutritional value. Our world has become cold and self-centered. If something does not directly benefit us then more often than not we have no interest in doing it. It has been proven over and over again that smiling and and laughing contribute to good health and happy lives (probably because people that smile and laugh are slightly less stressed and stress actually leads to health problems). It has also been proven that the majority of the human race feels better about themselves and the world around them when they do something for someone else with no expectation of receiving anything in return. So our self-centered attitudes are depriving us of the "feel-good" moments that provide the emotional nutrition of our lives.

Fact three: SPAM is the meat that gives instant gratification. My generation has been marked as the Now Generation. We know what we want and we want it right now. Gone are the days of setting a goal and working hard to achieve it. No, we want everything handed to us on a silver platter. We don't want to work to attain the degree neccessary to get the white collar job, we feel that we "deserve" it based on our parents, our background, our so called hardships while growing up or any other host of reasons that we can think of to avoid actually having to work for something.

While it is easy to look at these comparisons and shake our heads and wonder how we are ever going to fix the moral decay that has permeated our lives, the answer is really quite simple. It is one three letter word.... G.O.D. God is fully capable and 100% willing to be the meat in our lives. If fact, that's the way He originally planned for it to work. He never intended that we search for emotional nutrition in the world, He has everything we need for our daily values and more. And the problem that my generation has with wanting that instant gratification? He has that worked out too. See I've noticed that when I actually have a relationship with God (prayer, fasting, communication with God and His believers) things in my life become a great deal easier. Yes, I still have to work for what I want (the only thing I don't have to work for is God's love and forgiveness), but I don't have to work nearly as hard when I have God's help as I do when I am trying to achieve my goals and dreams on my own.

So while the world has nothing to offer me but SPAM, (and no, I still have no clue why anyone would actually eat that stuff) I can take some comfort in knowing that my Heavenly Father is ready and willing to serve me a nice juicy porterhouse the moment I ask him for it.

So what are you having for dinner tonight?