Pringles. They’re potato chips, right? Depends on who you ask. According to Proctor and Gamble, they’re savory snacks. Why the distinction? Because in the UK, potato products (including potato chips) are taxed, other types of food products aren’t. It made sense then, financially speaking, for P&G to claim that Pringles aren’t chips after all. They’re just snacks.

Britain’s Supreme Court wasn’t fooled. They declared that Pringles — which consist of more than 40% potato flour — are, in fact, chips. And being potato chips, Pringles now owes about $160,000,000 in taxes. Of course, I don’t suppose you can blame P&G for trying.

The truth is, we try to do the same thing. We spin bad habits in order to justify bad behavior. The workaholic calls himself committed. The perfectionist says he has high expectations. The tyrant claims to be a great leader. The man with a brutal temper claims that he is intense. The miser claims he’s frugal. The greedy man claims he’s driven. The bully says he’s assertive. The lazy man calls himself laid back. And so on.

Shakespeare said, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And that which we call a potato chip by any other name still tastes something like a potato. And any other name we give to sinful behavior still does the damage that only sin can do.

Paul wrote to Titus, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.” (Titus 3:2-3)

He saying that we need to do good and do it in a good way. Let’s not try to repackage hurtful attitudes, pretending they’re actually virtues. Let’s be honest with honest with ourselves and with others, and seek to do good in a good way.

In the movie Ground Hog Day, Bill Murray plays a self-absorbed, cynical weatherman who gets stuck with going to Puxatawnie Pennsylvania on February 2 for the big Ground Hog Day celebration, a task he dreads. Worst of all, he wakes up the next day only to find that it’s not the next day — it’s February 2 again. He has to relive the day again and again and again.

Eventually he gets the day perfect:  he saves a homeless man from freezing, he saves another man from choking in a restaurant, he catches a little boy who falls out of a tree, he changes a flat for some elderly women, and so on. In other words, he spends the day serving people.

Today is Ground Hog Day, and I’m guessing that all of us will only get one shot at it — just like we get just one shot at every other day. We have one chance to get today right; let’s make the most of this opportunity. Let’s spend the day serving others.

As the writer of Hebrews said, “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13)

A survey published by the Barna Group in 2006 demonstrated that most American evangelicals don’t consider themselves to be holy. The report states:

- 76% believe that it is possible for someone to become holy regardless of their past.
- 55% said that they knew someone they considered to be holy.
- 29% consider themselves to be holy.

It appears that believers are more convinced of their connection to their old nature than they are to their connection to their connection to their new nature. They’re more aware of their acts of sinfulness than they are of their acts of righteousness. They’re more aware of their failures than they are of their successes.

I suppose this makes sense. In the journey toward holiness, the ugliness of sin will stick out, like a smudge on an otherwise beautiful painting. It is this awareness of sin that empowers us to fight it, reject it, and abandon it.

But let’s not let ourselves be too aware of sin — not in the sense that it defines us. Though we struggle with the old man, we must remember that who we really we are is defined by the gift of grace that God has lavished upon us. Hebrews says we have made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:10) and through this sacrifice we are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14)

The first reference describes our position: God declares us holy. The second reference describes our performance: God is conforming us into the image of Christ.

For this reason we must learn to see ourselves as God sees us: New creatures, created in Christ to become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Your struggles with sin — the fact that sinful tendencies frustrate you — are an indication of what God has already done in your life and where he is taking you today.

Carl Sandburg said, “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.”

He may not have known it, but he was describing the life of every believer in Jesus Christ. It’s our dual nature, as Paul described in Romans 7:22-23. “I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another law at work in me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.”

Everyday you have to choose: Will you live according to the new nature or the old? Will you soar with the eagles or wallow in the mud? Your decision determines everything — how you greet your day, what you think about, how you talk to (or talk about) your co-workers, how you spend your spare change, and how you spend your spare time.

Every day, and every moment of every day, you have the power to choose your environment: the clear blue sky or the local hippo hangout. You’ve got a key to both places, and access is unrestricted — it just depends on where you prefer to be.

Remember today that God is calling you upward.