On a beautiful Saturday morning, the Baker family decided to start the weekend off by driving to their local pancake house. Max and his younger brother, George, both looked at the menu. When the waiter came to take the family’s order, Max ordered a large stack of pancakes. George listened to Max and without hesitation cheerfully said to the waiter, “I want that too!”

When they got their pancakes, the waiter left a large maple syrup dispenser. Max poured some syrup on top of his pancakes, then he sat the dispenser back on the table. George looked at Max’s pancakes glistening with syrup, and grabbed the dispenser for himself. He poured out slightly more than what was on his brother’s pancakes. Max glanced over at George and grinned. He noticed his brother’s pattern of copying him and said, “Hey George, can you hand me that maple syrup again? I think I need just a little bit more”. George gave him the syrup, Max proceeded to pour almost double of what he originally poured on his pancakes. Then, George grabbed the dispenser and turned it upside down, the syrup spilled onto his pancakes until they were flooded. He smiled at Max, stuck his fork in a pancake and attempted to pick up a piece. As he lifted it to his mouth, it fell apart. He tried again, and it fell apart. Max saw George do this, laughed, and said “This is why you shouldn’t try to outdo someone else, it usually never ends up well”. Max then gave George a few pancakes from his plate, and they continued with their meal.

George’s plain pancakes in the story symbolizes our relationship with God. The maple syrup symbolizes the extra “sweet” things of life. Like George, when we compare ourselves to other people, we will continue to “pour” more things in our life that we do not need. This can be vacations, buying new clothes, keeping up to date on the latest technology, etc.

While it is fun to do these things, if it is done in excess, it can shift our eyes away from God being our number-one priority. Our peace and joy in life will suffer from it. The only thing that will truly make us happy in life, is a close relationship with our Lord.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. – Matthew 6:24 NIV

By: Carrie Streb