The Pharmacy Chick

As I revealed in an earlier post, Pharmacy Chick, in addition to being a phrustrated pharmacist, is also a Christian. (note: if you aren’t Christian, or you find fault in Christianity, you probably won’t be interested in the rest of this post..consider yourself forewarned, because I will delete comments that insult the Lord)

Mr Chick and I are not Catholic, but we decided to observe the Lenten season by observing a personal sacrifice of our own. Some years we do, others we don’t. We have given up chocolate, soda pop, this and that. Our lifestyle remained the same, we just “left out” this particular thing that we were giving up for the 6 or so weeks. This year was different. It was Mr Chick’s idea: “How about giving up eating out?”

Wow…now that was completely different. That would entail a lifestyle change. We have a rather active lifestyle. We are DINK’s (Double Income No Kids), so this provides us a lot of freedom that many people may not have. It is standard operating procedure for the Chick family to take off in the morning, play all day, then arrive home around or after the dinner hour. It may involve taking the dogs to the beach, or going for a hike, or whatever. Regardless of what we are doing, it usually involves eating out somewhere along the way. Plus, we just like eating out. Despite the fact I work in the same parking lot as a grocery store, my fridge is pathetically stocked. Its just too easy to say “Lets have Mexican tonight!” and I seldom get a negative response from Mr.Chick.

We decided on the ground rules. Baking a pizza at home? yes. Having one delivered? no. Coke at a vending machine? yes, Starbucks? no. The first day presented its first challenge. We had 3 obligations across town, that were going to take all day. While I was used to packing a lunch for work, I was not used to packing a picnic lunch for running errands. But we made due. We ate our sandwiches and chips in a parking lot and we didn’t starve to death. The first 2 weeks were the hardest. I had to plan, I had to have food in the fridge. I had to remember portable food when we were out and about. We ate a lot of bananas–a very portable food! We only had one exception to this rule, a night we had planned with friends back in December. Since we had cancelled once, it seemed the wrong thing to do to cancel twice.

Fast forward now 6 weeks. It was harder than I thought for the first 3 weeks, then ironically easier than I thought for the last 3 weeks. We have gotten used to this change. I have eaten a lot of canned soup and sandwiches at work, and I have a much better stocked fridge at home. Gone are the discussions of WHERE do we want to eat. We just know we are eating at home, period.

I am sure we have saved some money in the process, gads, we ate out quite often, even if it was fast food. Yes its been a sacrifice, but as it has gone along, it seems much less of one as we have gotten used to it. I thought I would really miss eating out after 6 weeks, but as I come to the close of Lent, I find I dont miss eating out much at all. In fact, I sort of lament the end of Lent.

It was a sacrifice I was glad I made, but in the end, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be–perhaps a grace gift from God. Jesus Christ also made a grace gift to me, but it was much harder than any sacrifice I could think up. Today is Good Friday, and 2000+ years ago at this time, Jesus was somewhere in the processes of the flogging and the cross. He was denied by his friends, spat upon, tortured and left to die a humiliating death, paying the price for the sins of all humanity. Thankfully the story doesn’t end there. He didn’t stay dead. My small sacrifice ends on Easter. His lasts for an eternity. Thank you Jesus.

Happy Easter. He is Risen, He is Risen, Indeed.

Tags: personal life | |