Rat poison. I have never put that much thought into it until I read that it was only 3 percent poison. Three percent. So what makes up the other 97 percent? You guessed it… food. The product is designed to lure an unsuspecting rodent in with the smell and taste of something they delightfully recognize as food. Along with the meal, they ingest trace amounts of fatal toxins that quickly end their little rodent life. Rats die, not by an abundance of poison, but by a trace amount laced into an enticing pellet of food.
Isn’t this how we operate in our day-to-day lives? We don’t develop diabetes because we ingest bags of sugar at a time, or get cancer because we drink down bottles of pesticides. No, it is laced in our day-to-day encounters and many of us remain blissfully unaware. It’s just a little bit of MSG. Just a little bit of artificial sweetener. Just a little bit of toxic and rancid fats. And on we go. Our bodies adapt. Poisons go to work under the surface, for days, months, years, undetectable, destroying us slowly from the inside out. Three percent at a time.
For once, I’m not going to talk about splenda and nutra-sweet, rancid oils and preservatives, pesticides and artificial coloring or vaccinations and toxic cleaning supplies (that’s discussed in other documents). Isn’t this also the way our hearts are hardened? Our spirits are worn down? Our morals and virtues are compromised? Under the guise of something harmless sits a strategically hidden poison, undetectable and lethal. It starts as a bent rule at work, the intrigue of a new and seemingly harmless relationship, a small moral compromise. But the chase of that particular pleasure or experience lands you right in the middle of unintended consequences, three percentage points at a time.
This is the tactic. You’ve seen it in the ones you love, in the celebrity world, in your own world. That uncle who had it all but began throwing it away one blackjack bet at a time. The wife and mother who began to cover up her pain one evening drink at a time. That beautiful little girl who began destroying her life and her virtue one moral compromise at a time. Small deposits of poison litter your life and rarely are they detected until you realize they have taken a terminal toll on your life. Paul warns against “any kind of impurity,” because he knew what even a hint could do. Three percent. “A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough” (Galatians 5:9).
We are in the middle of a war, a battle for health and a battle for the soul. And our enemy attacks in the small discrepancies. Three percentage points at a time. And we combat him by allowing ourselves to be searched by those with our best interest at heart. Like a drug dog searches out cocaine, we need to be surrounded by those with a nose for spotting poison in our own lives. Church small groups. Addiction support groups. Your Drs Mark and Liz team! Surround yourself with people who hold you accountable so you can transform your life into the kind that’s safe for you and everyone you were put here to influence. Poison laced into your life will dwindle, a percent at a time, until it is not “even a hint,” and there you will find freedom.
Failure is nothing more than a few ERRORS repeated every day. SUCCESS is nothing more than a few DISCIPLINES practiced every day. Discipline starts in the form of knowledge. My encouragement to you on your health journey is to keep pursuing KNOWLEDGE.
Dr Liz