A Simple Bowl of Spaghetti

What’s Standing in Your Way of Better?

The bowl of spaghetti I used to teach about has a new meaning. Let’s say spaghetti is your favorite dish, and you can’t live without it. Let’s say you are addicted to eating spaghetti. What if your doctor said that your health would deteriorate; should you continue to eat it? Here it is: the thing that you love is destroying your life.

With that in mind, let’s now equate spaghetti to something in your life that’s not good for you. Maybe it’s a sin, a bad habit, or an addiction, whatever separates you from God. With your total focus on spaghetti and your unwillingness to put spaghetti away – whatever spaghetti may be – you have also canceled out the possibility of God replacing the spaghetti with something much better.

There’s a story about a family—a husband, a wife, and their children—who lived in a horrible city. Angels came to rescue them from the plight of this city because they were sent on assignment to be destroyed because of the evil they were doing there. The angels insisted that they hurry to get out to safety. The angels urged them to get out of this place and get to the next city so they could be out of the way of this destruction that was coming. ^[1] The guy’s name was Lot.

What are you hesitant to leave behind?
Lot hesitated. Here he was, warned and in the presence of angels trying to save him by letting him know what would happen, but Lot still hesitated. He was comfortable in the place where he was. He didn’t see a problem with the dangers or what was happening in this horrible city. The city of Sodom (and Gomorrah) was probably the worst city you can imagine. God sentenced it to destruction. Everything in this city was evil, tilted towards evil, yet something made Lot hesitate. What are you hesitating to leave behind?

The angels took Lot by the hand, him, his wife, and his two daughters, and he rushed them out of the city to get them to safety. ^[2] The angels ordered them, gave them an order, and said, look Lot, you have to get out of here now. Run, don’t stop, don’t look back. Do not stop, don’t look back, for you got to get out of here if you want to be safe. Get to the next city so you’ll get out of the way of destruction. ^[3]

The angels were very specific and had to ensure that Lot escaped because there was nothing he could do until he made it to safety, the angels, that is. ^[4]

When Lot reached the village the next morning at sunrise, the Lord of Heaven rained down fire on the city of Sodom; you may know the story. I want to highlight that they (Lot, his wife, and daughters) were watching this; Lot, his wife, and his daughter saw the destruction happening to this city in real-time. And the scripture says that God utterly destroyed them. ^[5]

What has your eyes looking back rather than looking forward?
Let this event help you understand why this concept of the bowl of spaghetti is important. Lot’s wife looked back as she was falling behind. Here it is. She saw the destruction, was warned, and was told not to look back, yet she was so taken by what she was leaving. She was so used to it and addicted to it; Lot’s wife was so in love with the thing that was about to destroy her that she looked back and fell behind. ^[6] She was unwilling to give up the thing that was going to cause her death, the thing that she loved so much that was going to cause her to be destroyed. Can you imagine having something in your life so potent that you are unwilling to give it up while it’s ruining your life? That’s what the bowl of spaghetti represents: something that you’ve fallen in love with, that you see destroying your life, yet at the same time, you’re unwilling to give that up. This is what happened to Lot’s wife.

She turned into a pillow of salt. ^[6] We often don’t understand the meaning of this story, but it represents a person with an appetite for something they are unwilling to give up. What is that something, that spaghetti that’s destroying you but reluctant to give up? Did you know that the exercise of pairing fasting with prayer is your way of giving up something that might be getting in your way from having a life that’s better than the one that’s behind you? That’s what Lot’s wife was missing. The angels were trying to keep her from certain death, yet her appetite for the wickedness, the sin, and the immorality of the city that she left had a greater pull than on her. She was unwilling to let that go.

Do not be that person. That’s what normal people do. Normal people are unwilling to let go of the sickness, the appetite, the habits, the addictions, and the lusts that are tearing their lives apart because they can’t see their way to something better. You won’t taste the better dish, the better life, the better habit, that better relationship until you put the spaghetti out of the way. Whatever the spaghetti may be…

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References:
[1] Genesis 19:15, Bible.com, accessed February 7, 2025, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/GEN.19.15
‘At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!” ‘

[2] Genesis 19:16, Bible.com, accessed February 7, 2025, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/GEN.19.16
‘When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. ‘

[3] Genesis 19:17, Bible.com, accessed February 7, 2025, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/GEN.19.17
‘When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!” ‘

[4] Genesis 19:22, Bible.com, accessed February 7, 2025, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/GEN.19.22
‘But hurry! Escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” (This explains why that village was known as Zoar, which means “little place.”) ‘

[5] Genesis 19:23-25, Bible.com, accessed February 7, 2025, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/GEN.19.23-25
‘Lot reached the village just as the sun was rising over the horizon. Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation.’

[5] Genesis 19:26, Bible.com, accessed February 7, 2025, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/GEN.19.26
‘But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.’

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.