Well, today is day 3 of our AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge and me eating gluten free. It’s going well so far. I’ve had some temptations but I have held my ground... a whopping three days. Lance and I started the Can You 24 workout on Saturday and we love it. We both broke a sweat but it wasn’t too hard, so we kind of felt that it was of little consequence. No pain, no gain. Right? Oh. My. Word. We. Were. So. So. Wrong. The day after the first workout we both feel like somebody beat us with a lead pipe. This morning we got up and did the core stretch which felt so darn good. I will start giving more specific updates later on.
Today, I want to post something that is related to our health goals but on a more spiritual level. Let me start this out with a disclaimer: First, I aim this post at Christians. Second, I am not trying to promote legalism with this post. I’m not trying to give you a bunch of “do”s and “don’t”s to condemn you and I am by no means pointing fingers.. well just one and it is pointing at myself. I simply want to raise an issue that I have been convicted about over the last couple of days; one that I think most Christians don’t really even consider. So, please read this with grace in mind. Let’s begin with the Word...
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
These are two verses that I have been meditating on the last couple of days. I know 1 Corinthians 6 is in reference to sexual sin, but the truth remains that if we are Christians, then the Holy Spirit does indeed dwell within us and we should glorify and honor God with our bodies. I’m guessing that most Christians consider their “honoring God with their bodies” complete if the following boxes are checked (these are just off the top of my head)...
- No excessive drinking
- No illegal drug use or prescription abuse
- No tobacco use
- No fornication
- No self-mutilation
- No inappropriate attire
But one thing I think the vast majority of Christians (at least in American society today) never even think about is their relationship with food and how they maintain their body through exercise (I’m really going to focus on food).
For most of my life, I have valued food only two ways; how it tastes and satisfies my senses and how it comforts me. And I don’t believe I’m alone in this. I think most Christians have an unhealthy and unbiblical relationship with food. I believe the lack of awareness and concern about this is mainly due to how grossly food is abused and wasted in our consumeristic culture. Christians, as a whole, have been conformed to this world in this area. Have we not?
Think about food and drink advertisements and all the self-indulgent adjectives that are being used or implied to promote said food and drink. Think about how we flock to that new chain restaurant or downtown cafe and pay money we can’t afford to spend just to get the town’s biggest, greasiest burger or the most authentic Italian pasta (guilty). We often gorge ourselves to the point of discomfort for a few minutes of indulging our senses (guilty). We reward and bribe our children for good behavior with with deserts and candies (guilty). We get upset if all the donuts are gone at church before we get one (guilty). We look forward to holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas because of the vast amounts of delicious foods we will be able to consume (guilty). We use food to cover up stress, depression and anxiety (guilty), and when we do chose to “diet” it’s a result of our desire to better fit society’s definition of attractive (guilty). I could go on and on and on. Food is an idol in our culture.
The statistics of obesity in America say volumes. Almost 36% of Americans are obese... not just a little chunky but obese. This is sad, y’all! What’s even sadder, is the fact that our churches adequately reflect those horrible statistics as well. Look around! Now, please hear my heart on this; I am not making fun of or putting down people who are overweight. I myself have been overweight. Really it’s not the weight or size that I’m concerned about here... it’s the mindset that leads to these results that bothers me and I think it should bother every Christian that desires to honor and glorify God.
Let’s go to the beginning...
Genesis 1:29 “And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food”
Genesis 9: “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you,”
Okay, so God intended for us to eat what he provided. He created us to need nourishment from plants, fruits and animals and I believe he provided them for our pleasure as well. BUT He also (and supremely) created us to worship Him and take pleasure in Him. We abuse and idolize what God provided for our nourishment and enjoyment, therefore we do not glorify Him... we glorify ourselves. We do not rejoice in God’s provision and goodness, we rejoice more in our own satisfaction. We have no control over food but rather it has control over us. When we do attempt to take control over food, we do it in our own strength for our own selfish and vain reasons (this was the source of my own health goals). This is not right. I believe it is sinful and I believe we pay the penalty for this sin in our bodies as we are plagued with chronic illness and pain, cancers, disorders, an diseases (I’m not saying that sickness and disease are sent to punish us when we sin, just that there are consequences to our sinful actions). We were not created for this type of relationship with food.
So what should our relationship with food (and exercise for that matter) look like? Let’s look back at 1 Corinthians 10:31; “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” No matter what we do in life we should always strive to glorify God, because that is what we were created to do. I believe we should glorify God by viewing food with gratefulness, an attitude of worship and joyfulness. I believe we should also be good stewards of our bodies and not be slave to food, because as Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 6 12-13 “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything. ‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’ --and God will destroy both one and the other.”
At every meal we should be reminded of the goodness and the provision of God. He gives us all that we need including food. We should thank him for it not with just a memorized "grace" or "blessing" but with a truly grateful and humble heart.
We should be amazed by the beauty of God’s creation. It should inspire worship in us that He ordained every detail of every living thing. He created our digestive system, our sense of taste and smell. Think about how perfect it is down to the very last detail? We are fearfully and wonderfully made!
And we should find joy in eating the food he has provided (especially together). Our sense of taste is so amazing and God has created so many unique and complicated things for us to enjoy with this sense of taste. God wants us to enjoy his creation. I believe it pleases Him when we savor a juicy steak or crave a sweet, ripe strawberry, but we must be ever careful to take pleasure in it as the creation of God and give Him the glory.
Finally, we should use food to nourish and build up our bodies not to defile it and break it down in the name of pleasure and fulfillment. Our bodies are truly not our own; they were bought with a price and they are a temple to the Holy Spirit. Too many of us do not take care of our bodies the way God intended for us to. I don't think I need to go into what that means... I think we all know what it means to eat healthy and take care of our body.
What if we walked into our church sanctuary on Sunday morning and found that a wild rave had taken place there the night before? Maybe the carpets were ruined with stains of food and drink and vomit, the walls were smeared with excrement and painted with graffiti, there were signs of rampant debauchery all over, and the chairs were thrown everywhere amidst piles of garbage. Our place of worship would have been defiled. We would be disgusted that the very place where we usher in the presence of the Lord had been a place of such sinful indulgence the night before. Obviously, being bad stewards of our body is a bit different than a rave in our church, but my point is that our bodies are sacred temples that house the very presence of God, yet we allow our bodies to be defiled by sinful indulgence. Am I making sense?
I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of ways you may not be honoring God with your body especially in the area of food and exercise. I have been praying that God would give me a holy view of food and exercise to replace my selfish views. I pray that, with His strength, I can take control over this aspect of my life and no longer allow it to control me. I pray for you and if this is an area of need in your life, I pray that God will give you the strength to do the same.
Well, I guess that’s it. I will give y’all a better update later this week.
Until next time. -K
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