Would You Rather?

Would you rather eat a Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bar or a Hershey’s bar with Almonds? Or how about a Hershey’s Cookies and Cream bar. Or Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bars, my personal favorite. Or maybe you don’t like Hershey’s chocolate at all and you’d prefer a Swiss chocolate Toblerone. Or Nestlé's. Or Mars’ 3 Musketeers or Snickers or M&Ms.

Did you know there are seven wide-spread varieties of M&Ms (milk, dark, peanut, almond, peanut butter, crispy, and pretzel) but depending on the time of year and where you live, there could be as many as twenty-five options? Twenty-five! Where was I when they introduced mocha flavored M&Ms?

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A week or so ago I was tooling around on YouTube for no good reason, and I came across a plethora of videos with titles like “Irish Taste Test American Cereals,” “Irish Taste Test American Sandwiches,” and “Irish Taste Test American Soft Drinks.” (They really didn’t like grape soda. Or pretty much every cereal!) But in the episode where they tasted our candy, the only candy they ate was M&Ms. But every blessed variety!

First of all, they were overwhelmed by how big the bag was. It was a one-pounder. “You can’t get any bag of candy this big in Ireland,” one guy said. They tasted the peanut butter ones and another guy said, “It’s just peanut everything!” He apparently doesn’t like peanut butter.

After wasting about half an hour with these three-minute videos, I realized, as if I didn’t already know, that we in America have too many choices. I mean, seriously. Do we need another flavor of M&Ms? Milk, dark, peanut, peanut butter, and pretzel would be sufficient. Don’t you think?

But in America, companies have discovered that it isn’t so much about the number of varieties but that they can always offer something new. Every year Lay’s potato chips runs that contest where you get to name the new flavor, the “Do Us A Flavor” contest (and this year’s finalists have been announced, if you’re interested). Why do we need another flavored potato chip, and how could you possibly think truffles and potato chips go together?

Why do we need another? Why do we need something new? Why?

Because in our heart of hearts something is missing. What do candy and chips have to do with contentment? Absolutely nothing, except as a symptom.

I am reminded of a “would you rather” question that is answered in the Psalms. We don’t hear the question, but the psalmist answers it: “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Psalm 84:10.

God asks, "Which would you rather have, you Sons of Korah, one day in God’s house or a 1000 outside of His presence?” Better is one day…

And when our hearts are not in constant search for that one day in God’s presence, when we allow the pull of the immediately important and the drag of the mundane and the choices of every day to distract us, then we will constantly ask for more and another and one more variety. That last flavor you gave me didn’t fill the void; let’s try another.

If we seek God with all of our hearts, the search will end, because He is enough.

Which would you rather?