The Devil works at Starbucks

“I’ve got to stop eating scones” was reverberating through my head as I drove to Starbuck’s this morning for a cup of coffee. It’s been happening every winter since moving to the Northwest. . .I get into the habit of eating “a little something” with my coffee. It reduces the acid. It prevents heartburn. It gives me a little brain food. I’ve got a million of them. . .justifications and excuses that is. Anyway, with Great Lent approaching I know I’ve got to cut it out and so I was steeling myself to do battle with the pastry case before I entered Starbucks. But I made a tactical error. I stopped off at the restroom. How was I to know they would stoop so low as to advertise lite versions of pastries in there. The bathroom? The hook was something like this, “My drink is a cup of victory. . .to the angels of resolution sitting on my shoulder.” And beneath it were drawings. . .in that Starbucky, yuppie, I’m-into-art-and-other-cool-stuff style. . .of three alternative, lite pastries. I don’t think it even mentioned pastries in the text. . .it just talked about angels and resolutions and other quasi-religious and self-righteous things. Reading it and seeing the cute little drawings made everything seem OK. . .like angels were rewarding me with pastries for even considering to work on my gluttony. And before I realized what was happening, I found myself wondering if I had enough change in my pocket to buy one. Deplorable! Diabolical! Talk about attacking a man when his defenses are down. C.S. Lewis said in the introduction to The Screwtape Letters that he had learned the secret of listening in on the stratagems of the devils. It's easy. . .he just studied ad copy.