If a Little is Good - More is Better

When I was a child my grandparents lived next door. There were many days when I ate six meals, three at home and three with Grandma and Granddad. My best visits were the days when my grandmother made candy. Before she added sugar to the mix she would look over the rim of her glasses and say, “If a little is good, more is better!” It sounded logical to me, but my grandfather would pipe in from his rocking chair and say, “Nell, too much of a good thing is not a good thing.” Their opposing wisdom left me wondering: Can you have too much of a good thing? Years later I found the answer: It all depends on what the “good thing” is.
 
Believe it or not, even though chocolate covered cherries are considered a good thing by most people, you can have too many. Let me explain.
 
When I was thirteen years old I fell head–over–heels for Kathie Brewer; and for some unknown mystery—yet to be explained—she fell for me. Fifty years later Kathie and I are still falling for each other, and from time to time we stumble and fall over one of our eight grandchildren when they play at our feet. 
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​One day, during our first few months of flirting, holding hands, and chasing each other around the neighborhood, Kathie mentioned that she liked chocolate covered cherries. I made a mental note to myself and on our first Valentines Day I gave her fifty-two boxes of Brach’s Cherry Cordials—one box for each week of the year. I was certain it would be a grand display of my affection.
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Kathie hid the candy under her bed. She ate two cherries in the morning before she got on the school bus and three or four in the evening, while we fell asleep talking on the telephone. The routine went on for seven weeks when suddenly, quite to her surprise, the candy made Kathie nauseous. To this day the thought of eating a cordial cherry covered in chocolate makes her cringe.

​​​If the “good thing” is a chocolate covered cordial cherry the answer to our question is YES! You can have too much of a good thing! But if the “good thing” is the passion that drives a young lover to buy six hundred and twenty four pieces of candy to express his love for the girl of his dreams, then the answer is an emphatic NO! You simply cannot have too much passion!
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​During the month of February I will reflect on the things Jesus was passionate about and explore ways to add more of those things in my life. When I read the stories of Jesus and pay special attention to the words printed in red, I find three things Jesus was extremely passionate about.  

​Jesus loved every person he met and had a special affinity for those he called the “least of these.” He identified so much with people on the margins of life that he said when we do something good for them we are showing kindness to him. Jesus was so crazy about people that he said we should even love our enemies.

 
Jesus wanted all people to live full and abundant lives. He talked about life in the kingdom of God all the time and said his driving purpose was to preach good news to the poor and proclaim a message that would set oppressed people free. He was so passionate about life and finding a way for people to experience eternal life in the kingdom of God he gave his own life for the cause.

​Jesus called mercy and justice the “weightier matters of the law.” He gave all of his time and attention to make a way for people who were treated unfairly to receive justice and for those who were oppressed by forces of evil to receive mercy.

​When it comes to passion for people, passion for life, and passion for justice and mercy, my grandmother’s saying rings true: If a little is good, more is better!
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