Thirst Quencher: "Already Sinning"

So today I walked into Starbucks to get a drink and do some computer work that needed to be done before school starts again. I walked up to the cashier and requested a large Green Tea Frappuccino. He asked if I wanted whipped cream with it. At this point, I paused to consider my stomach; I do not order it with whipped cream when my stomach has been acting up. Upon determining that I was able to take the whipped cream, I responded casually, “Sure, why not?”

This prompted the cashier to respond in like fashion, saying, “Yeah, if you’re sinning you minus well go all the way, right?”

I was stunned by this response. Trying to process the implications of this phrase and still maintain a friendly posture, I asked him to repeat himself since I was not sure I had heard correctly over the whirling blender. He assumed I didn’t get it, so he clarified, “Well you know, sinning by getting the frap...”

I stated that I understood as I noticed that he felt awkward about it and I paid with my debit card. Looking at my name on it, he apologized for the slight confusion, explaining, “Oh! My bad… I thought you were someone else.”

When I look at this simple, everyday experience, I see an uncanny allegorical unfolding of how we can now live our lives since Christ has paid it all. Let the cashier stand for the voice of the enemy, the Green Tea Frappuccino stand for sin, and whipped cream stand for continuing to sin. Now my mom is a nutritionist, so I know that the Green Tea Frappuccino is the highest calorie non-coffee beverage at Starbucks. I am aware that it is a poor exchange if my goal is to maintain a good diet as it is also high in sugar. I am better off ordering water and something high in protein to eat. This is a “sin” because I am exchanging that which is precious, being the money, for that which does not satisfy, being the drink. I am deceiving myself in gratifying my comforts at the cost of my needs. As I stand for humanity, I was given the law of nutrition. I know right from wrong. Yet somehow, I made a poor exchange, ignoring wisdom as given by my mother, I took of the fruit and if my stomach hurts, that’s my own fault. Yet the story does not end here. We’ve only read the first chapter.

The cashier rationalizes my addition of whipped cream by stating that since I’m already sinning, I should just keep doing so. In some regards, this is sound logic. If you have no hope of reclaiming what is lost, you minus well enjoy as much of what you can as possible. There is no sense in being miserable over an injustice you cannot rectify, right? Since I have ordered that high sugar drink, what’s a few more calories supposed to do? Yet for those of us who are in Christ, this is not the case. I am not in a hopeless predicament where reclamation of what has been lost is impossible. I can still choose to go to martial arts class or run a few miles. These things do not cost me further, because they have already been paid for. I have prepaid martial arts classes and running shoes to train. I merely need to invest the time in that which will build the muscle to burn the sugar I have injected.

Finally, the cashier’s line echoes the status we have in Christ. He apologizes for thinking I was someone else. There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ. My drink has already been paid for by the money my dad added to my account. It was allotted to my eating expenses; therefore the exchange value of my end is nullified. My “sin” costs me nothing. It was paid for in advance. My identity as a son justified my action. The enemy’s rationalization rang untrue not only in claiming the hopelessness of redemption, but also in missing the freedom I already had. I am not under the law, but rather the sin merely stands in the way of doing that which I am called to. I should not sin because it costs me time. Grace allows me the insurance that sin will not cost my life. If I sin more, grace will abound, but time will not. My dad did not pay for my lunches just so that I would spend time exercising more. Though that is already part of the program, since muscle must be maintained, he paid for my meals so that I could excel in that which I am called to. He paid for them so that I could grow into a strong man, equipped with the knowledge of what is good, of how to live, and how to grow. He paid for it so that I could fulfill all that I was meant to be, living life to the fullest extent, not suffering in some gym from the bitter teacher of experience. So the only question left after I have realized why my father paid for my sin is, “Will I live from here as the son He called me to be?”