November 3, 2014
I heard an analogy the other day about a Coke Machine.
We walk up to a Coke machine looking for a refreshing soda. We put in our quarters, push the button, and no soda drops out. Then we notice the light is on indicating that it is empty. At that point, most of us push the coin return, fish out our quarters, and go find another machine.
Some people, however, push the button several more times … push it harder … then take more quarters out of their pocket and feed them into the machine hoping they will get a different result if they try again.
The Coke machine can represent many things. Relationally, it can be love, acceptance, and affirmation. Monetarily, it can be a dead end job. Politically, it can be a party platform.
A healthy person realizes that when they are not getting love or acceptance or affirmation out of a broken relationship, the last thing they need to do is keep feeding it quarters and hoping for a different result.
However, some people cannot understand that if the machine is empty, it is empty. They push the button harder, straighten their hair and put on lipstick, push the button again, resolve to work out at the gym every morning, push the button, move to the side trying to sneak up on the button, and push it again hoping that if they do something different it will give them what they long for.
All the quarters in your savings account will not help you get a soda out of an empty machine. It will end up sucking you dry and you get nothing in return. There isn’t anything healthy about that type of relationship.
Let’s look at this from a political standpoint. We are repeatedly told that we have to vote for whoever the GOP ‘gives’ us to vote for. We gripe about how the party no longer adheres to its conservative platform as we feed quarters into it EVERY election. We continue to appease the owners of the Coke machine by refusing to use common sense, vote our conscience, hit the coin return, and GO FIND A DIFFERENT MACHINE! We continue to feed quarters into a machine that is incapable of giving us what we need.
After every election, we blame our continued thirst on the ones who chose to not put their quarters into the empty machine. Somehow we tell ourselves that if they, too, would have invested in the machine, maybe the return would have been different. How much sense does that make? None.
Folks, let’s go find a different Coke machine. This one is empty.