Union Square Park: Farmers Market

Amongst stone and steel, we approach a patch of green. A network of herb-topped tables across from mazes of “summer annuals.” Between the networks and mazes, bustles a classy throng. Girls in the dying fashion of long blouses over tights and ballet shoes sniff flowers. A granola couple in dreadlocks under worn bandanas walks with armfuls of herbs. Amongst them, double strollers and Yankees t-shirts buzz from vender to vender.
I step up to an organic honey vender complete with honey bees. A sign leaning against the glass jars reads, “We didn’t bring the bees.” The jar lids read, “Summer Flowers, Goldenrod, R, TF, S…” I had no idea there were different kinds of honey. The saleswoman hands me a drop of golden rod on a toothpick tip. That ranks among one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. But I dont want to lug an 8 oz. glass jar around the subways.
I walk on to a table of cider. “Directly from orchards in upstate New York,” says the woman as she pours me a dixie cup sample. This tastes like dry apple juice. “Thanks.”
My hand caresses a sheep skin as I pass the booth of dyed wool and roasting lamb then we pause for Chris' sake at a beef jerky stand for a sample of red peppered dried beef. Of course, I pretend like I am considering buying the product so that I feel a little less like a mooch.
After admiring the works of local artists, I buy a chilled lavender-apple tea from the members of an herb-garden commune. "Can you be replicated?" I ask my tea as I walk on toward The Strand's "18 miles of books."

Dog Crate Analogy

Every day, when it is time for my puppy to go into her crate, I simply toss a treat into it. She follows the snack right in then I close the door. Once she finishes eating and realizes what has happened, she cries and rustles around unhappily. EVERY DAY. I take this to mean that either A) She has not figured out that after I toss treats in the crate, I will close her in or B) Momentary satisfaction is more important to her than consequences.

Are humans not like this too? People repeatedly make the same mistakes and are lured into a crate (habit, lifestyle, or addiction) of sin that traps them. Either A) people haven't figured out that the first step to a sinful habit is the decision to commit the first act or B)we are blinded by momentary satisfaction and do not stop to look at consequences it might bring.

Fortunately, we have a forgiving God who has sent A) Jesus to loose our bonds to sin and smash our shackles and B) the Spirit as a helper to help us not to go on sinning.

1 Corinthians 10:13
James 4:7

Romans 6:15-18
"Don't you know you are slaves to the one whom you obey- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed... you have been set free from sin..."