Iced tea and discernment

Deuteronomy 11:16 NLT
But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods.

I have a mild allergy to sucralose. Normally I can taste it in the first sip, but every once in awhile I'm fooled by the other ingredients present. The reaction is nothing serious, just a slight elevation in body temperature, kind of like a heat flash, and some momentary sluggishness, that's on the good days. On the bad days I also get a pretty bad headache, moderate abdominal distress, and some dizziness. It has become increasingly difficult to avoid these reactions because sucralose is now found in so many beverages and I have to be pretty vigilant about reading ingredient lists.

It used to be easier to avoid these bothersome reactions because sucralose once was only found in diet drinks, which I don't drink, because the fake sugars have always caused these reactions. Now I guess the FDA has allowed it to be put into any beverage without any warning labels. Let this serve as caution to those who may also have this allergy and have not figured out why you're having strange reactions to different things. My advice: start checking the labels for sucralose or other inverted sugars.

This post came about because the other morning I decided to try a new brand of iced tea. It didn't say diet so I thought I would be safe, and foolishly, didn't read the label. I had also treated myself to one of my favorite pistachio muffins. Now because I had bitten into the muffin before I took a sip of the iced tea, my normally discerning palate was coated with pistachio goodness, and did not pick up on the taste of the sucralose in the iced tea.

I was driving while I ate, when I started to notice the familiar "creeping" sensation up the back of my neck, the wave of heat wash over my body, and the slight waviness to my vision. I immediately pulled over and checked the can. Sure enough, there was sucralose listed among the ingredients. I was both disappointed (because the iced tea was really good) and angry because the manufacturers had ruined my day because since I'd had this iced tea on an empty stomach, the more severe reactions would soon take hold. So I had to turn around and head home, my morning chore-run shot because of my mistake of not reading the label.

Anyway, on the way home, God began to speak to me about how I had let so many counterfeits slip into my circle, and been feeding on so many false messages because I hadn't been paying attention when my discernment fired. Obviously, I couldn't make any excuses because when God calls you on the carpet, He's already given you every opportunity to make the correction before He has to pull your coat.

I had been "dining" at so many corrupt tables, and not washing my heart afterwards with The Water of the Word, my discernment had gotten "coated" with the world's waywardness, and I was slowly drifting off-track. Even when the heat flashes and headaches of sin had surfaced as God's warning to my spirit to leave whatever I was doing alone, I ignored them, so He had to pull me up short!

I don't know down which road I was heading, or if I can point any specific fingers in any specific directions, I just know I had been drifting, and it took a can of iced tea to bring me back to my senses.

If you know that you've been dabbling in things you have no business being around, use this lesson as your jug-handle and turn that baby around and get back to the road you're supposed to be on. Don't make the mistake of so many others who ignored God's cautionary messages, and have now been turned over to their own devices (don't believe God will do that? See Romans 1:28)