Blog post August 22, 2026

Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residence and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 1 Peter 2:11

Cucumber boat races.. As I read this verse I thought of cucumber boat races. Isn't that what comes to your mind. lol.

Every year for our local town celebration, which used to have a pickle factory, we have pickle days. Our church hosts cucumber boat races. We take large cucumbers and cut them in half lentgh ways and then scrape all the seeds out of them to make a hollowed out cucumber, which serves as a boat. Two contestants launch their boats (cucumbers) down water filled pipes to see whose boat makes it to the end first.

The seeds of the cucumber, which is the life of a cucumber, get removed to lighten the load. So in essence all you have are hollowed out cucumbers being swept away with the current, flowing effortlessly downstream.

Worldly desires hollow out our very soul. We then flow downstream with many other hollowed out souls, just effortlessly drifting along. The warning is for us to stay away from worldly desires, knowing what they will do to us.

I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to managing this, but this verse challenges me. There is a war going on for our minds/souls. Our enemy can't take our souls but what if he can hollow them out so we just drift downstream with our very life scraped out... just a shell left. Wow, what a warning for us today.

Heavenly Father I pray today that you would indeed help us to realize the war we are in and the things that suck the very life out of our souls. We each have our own battles against worldly desires. Help us protect ourselves and give ear to the Holy Spirit as He tries to warn us of the dangers around us, I pray in Jesus name. AMEN AMEN.