You're Still You When You're Hungry
- bordenmscott
- Mar 8, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 9, 2022
One of my favourite radio/podcast programs is CBC’s “Under The Influence” with Terry O’Reilly. I don’t have much inherent interest in marketing and advertising, but the show has excellent research and great storytelling, so it’s always full of interesting details.
One of the ad campaigns Mr. O’Reilly gives high marks to is from Snickers. “You’re not you when you’re hungry” ads show somebody who is clearly not themselves because they are hungry. They’re so “not themselves” that they are played by an actor who clearly doesn’t belong in the scene. Here’s Mr. Bean as a samurai warrior of some kind, for example:
But closer to the beginning of this campaign's long run there were these two guys talking to two young ladies at a party and one of them (Joe Pesci at this point) is blowing it by being rude for no real reason. His friend takes him aside and gives him a Snickers bar to help him get back to himself. When he returns one of the young lades has become Don Rickles after another hunger transformation!
The ads are clever and worked well for Snickers. But they have an interesting theological side to them. Are we ever not “us”? Are there times when our behavior isn’t our fault or our responsibility?
I don’t think Snickers is trying to suggest quite this much, but there is a very human tendency to take credit for our good behaviour and assign our bad behaviour to someone or something else.
I might decide that I was just being rude because I was hungry, but if someone thanked me for doing something especially good I doubt I would say “Don’t thank me, I probably wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t just had lunch!” The “real” me does good, while the me who wrongs others is somehow not as real.
This speaks to a temptation we all have to ignore or downplay the reality that we are sinful. But, as I emphasized in my Sunday message this week, the Bible calls on us to grapple with our sinfulness and humbly recognize that we are often blind to our true spiritual condition. Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
However smart or experienced or confident a person might seem, they are not entirely trustworthy. I am not entirely trustworthy. I don’t always interpret what’s happening around me accurately. I’m not perfectly in touch with my own motivations and desires. Every single person is capable of convincing themselves of things that simply aren’t true.
(And yes, you can find Sunday's message in written, audio, or video form here.)
Even the most self-controlled, patient, and kind people lose it and act in uncharacteristic ways from time to time. I think we should be gracious when it happens, recognizing that it is a testament to a person's good character when we find it surprising that they behave badly. But that is “them." Like all of us, sin runs deep in their soul. That sin will show itself at times. And our job as Christians isn’t to deny sin or cover it up or try in vain to manage our image. Our job is to turn that over to Jesus and ask to be healed.
Adele Calhoun’s “Spiritual Disciplines Handbook” words this so well: Jesus, the only Son of God, died a violent, unspeakable death so we could know what freedom from sin tastes like. Jesus laid his power down, suffered and became sin so that we would not be condemned.
Every time we confess how we have missed the mark of God’s love and truth, we open ourselves up to the mending work of the cross. Jesus’ wounds hold true life-changing power. This is the shocking reality that confession can open up to us. Through confession and forgiveness we live into the truth of being God’s new creation! The old is gone. The new has come.”
Snickers isn't exactly wrong. Sometimes circumstances bring out the worst in us and we do need to eat, sleep, play, or pray to pull ourselves together. But that “worst in us” is fully part of us. You are you when you're hungry. Self-examination invites God to help us see what that sinful impulse is, and hopefully where it comes from. Confession helps us to break patterns of sin by bringing that sin to God each time - recognizing it, naming it, and asking God for forgiveness and the strength and wisdom to live as the new creations that were given life through Jesus’ sacrificial death.
I don't know of many stories of perfect success in this. Sometimes, by His miraculous power God may take away a weakness, negative tendency, or heal a trouble-causing wound completely. Praise God when this happens! But I think it is more common that God blesses us with more awareness of our blind spots and their potential impact on others, gives us faster recognition of harm we are doing, and grants us the humility to quickly confess these to God and people in order to grow in maturity. This is a process. Be gracious to those who are trying to walk this path. Be gracious to yourself as you walk this path. And tune in this Sunday to hear a few things about what to do with those who refuse to walk this path.
Colossians 3:12-14: Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Also, if you're itching for more, here is the very first ad of the Snicker's campaign staring the recently-deceased Betty White for the 2010 Superbowl.
And speaking of "Under The Influence", here is the episode about brand apologies that includes the 2008 Maple Leaf Foods apology that was a sermon illustration on Sunday.
This Week's Devotional (Confession and Self-Examination)
Pause for a moment. Pay attention to your breathing. Try to relax your body. Invite God to spend a few minutes with you. See the Psalmist's call to confession.
Psalm 38:9-22
All my longings lie open before you, Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.
My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
my neighbors stay far away.
I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply. Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God. For I said, “Do not let them gloat or exalt themselves over me when my feet slip.” For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. Many have become my enemies without cause[b]; those who hate me without reason are numerous. Those who repay my good with evil lodge accusations against me, though I seek only to do what is good. Lord, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.
And hear this song reminding us of God's grace when we come to Him.
Prayer
Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no selfish desires may drag downwards; give us an unconquered heart, which no troubles can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy ambitions may tempt aside. Give us also, O Lord our God, understanding to know you, perseverance to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274)
Further Reflection
Spiritual practices that contribute to self-examination and confession from Adele Calhoun's Spiritual Disciplines Handbook.
How in touch do you feel with your own sin? • If you feel out of touch with your sin, honestly consider where some of the following sins show up in your life: envy, lust, greed, gluttony, deceit, lying, exaggerating, envy, anger, pretense, avoidance of responsibility. • What do you see about yourself ? How do you want to talk to God about these things? • Confess where you have fallen short of God’s expectations, and receive his forgiveness.
Ask some of your family and close friends to help you see your blind spots. Ask questions like, What do I do that hurts you? How could I better love you? What is it like to be with me? Do I show interest in others or talk mostly about myself ? Let their answers guide you in a time of confession.
Calhoun, Adele Ahlberg. Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us (Transforming Resources) (p. 93-94). InterVarsity Press. Kindle EditionThe heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it.?”
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