Comments on: “It Was There, So I Ate It”

By: Nightturkey

Nightturkey — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:11:46 +0000

I recently read an interesting take on Romans 12:1&2. To present one’s body as a living sacrifice, the key is to treat the body as the sacrificial animal rather than the idol to which other things are sacrificed.
After offending God for many years by my unconfessed sin of Gluttony, last year I created a mental category labeled “Luxury Eating” and before I put anything in my mouth asked whether that thing fit in that category. If it did, I simply didn’t eat it.
…okay, it was simple, but it sure as StoveTop wasn’t EASY. My Belly-Baal whimpered, hollered, demanded, threw tantrums and screamed in protest, and I confess that I bowed to it more than a few times. BUT!! I did eventually learn how to discern between “need” and “want”, my walk with the Lord took on a new clarity and closeness, and as a healthy side effect I lost 40 pounds – my doctor took me off my blood pressure and cholesterol medications. Now all I have to do is resist the temptation to swap Gluttony for Vanity…

By: Trailblazer

Trailblazer — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:55:03 +0000

In case I missed it, did someone mention “I am the Bread of Life.”

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:06:26 +0000

God cannot be pleased with us when gluttony is accepted practice for Christians. And ’serving tables’ is not practiced much anymore.

By: Aliasmoi

Aliasmoi — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:54:03 +0000

Ouch!

By: Boethius

Boethius — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:47:57 +0000

DaveD:

I am a teacher. You made a great choice. It is very rewarding. All the struggles you will have to go through are worth the effort.

By: DaveD

DaveD — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:04:24 +0000

“Look at the way you are living, and measure it against those who place no value on Christ, have no time for Christ and are walking away from Christ and his Kingdom. Aside from your rhetoric and the more obvious, easier choices….is there that much of a difference?”

Amen. If it walks like a duck…..

“I’m talking about vast tracts of life spent in front of a game, or porn, or food, or doing nothing. Just lots of nothing.”

It’s the “lots of nothing” that hit me. So, as of yesterday, I went back to college at 36 to become a teacher. Just sitting around waiting for God to drop something in my lap led to 15 wasted years. I hope He will forgive me.

By: Patrick Lynch

Patrick Lynch — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:02:55 +0000

You should do a post on vanity, Michael.

I mean, not because I think you’re an expert on being vain, you know, but because I’d be interested to hear your take on self-esteem, pride, looking good, and how faith does and doesn’t help with stuff like that.

Boethius and the rest of you weight-watchers, sincerely, good luck with that. Battling your metabolism can be extremely difficult, but the payoff is immense when your body finally starts to feel like it should.

By: Boethius

Boethius — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:27:58 +0000

JimBob:

Too funny!

I think you have a good point and that is that a lifetime of habit is difficult to change. When one is young, one establishes a pattern of eating a certain amount of calories. When young, in most cases, one does not suffer consequences to eating those calories because one tends to be more active, have a metabolism, etc. Things change with age but the habit remains.

With age, I have gained weight. With medical assistance, I have determined that I can not consume more than 1400 calories a day in order to maintain weight. Obviously, I must go below that amount to lose weight. These numbers could change if I would only add more physical activity to my daily life. So, my problem is two-fold. I do not want to add more physical activity to my daily life and 1400 calories a day is not satisfying to my belly.

So, is my belly a god to me? I do not think so, though I definitely enjoy feasting, that is not a daily struggle for me. The struggle is re-training my belly to accept, without protest, only 1400 calories a day. To date, the re-training is not going well and therefore, the extra poundage has increased over the past ten years. I am not getting any younger and therefore, I better find a way to win this battle or else the next twenty to thirty years, if God wills to leave me here, could be a physically tough time.

By: JimBob

JimBob — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:11:59 +0000

Wow, does this post ever hit home…

What really sux is that, if you indulge this little god for a lifetime, suddenly it rears up its ugly little head and bites you right in the pancreas! So now, I can’t feast anytime, and I can’t fast either, lest my glucose go to one extreme or the other.

Where do I go, so often, when stress hits? To food. Where should I go? To God. With the capital “g”, that is.

As MDS said, it’s time for me to grow up and start being a man about this.

‘Scuse me, I gotta get ready for lunch…

By: wmcwirla

wmcwirla — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:39:20 +0000

I think much of this could be dealt with by a healthy rhythm of fasting and feasting. Those who do not fast know not how to feast. Luther once said that the belly god must be taught that it will not be fed every time it growls. This is one reason he called fasting a “fine, outward discipline.” Advent fasting gives way to Christmas feasting with a renewed sense of gift and gratitude to the Giver. Post-Christmas guilt is hardly the way of free men in Christ.

One caution here is the opposite ditch, namely a dour pietism that denies the joy of food and drink. Against the early gnostic ascetics, the apostle Paul wrote: “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” 1Tim. 4:4-5.