A Weighty Issue Confronts Me

This post is for me.  I am preaching to myself so don’t feel convicted unless you have been trying it on and the shoe fits.

Here I am again… at a stage of increasing waistline, my cloths are getting tight and I don’t have enough energy anymore to blow my hat off.   A couple years ago I went on a weight reduction program and reduced myself down to pretty close to where I want to be.  I went down two sizes and I felt great.  Now here I am back to the weight I was before then and not feeling good at all.  It is a fact I have done this most of my life.  I have been the yo-yo diet guy, up and down, up and down and mostly up.  I am the one that can tell you diets do not work for the long term.  I know it isn’t good for my health.  I know I need a paradigm shift and I know I shouldn’t be living this way.  The only excuse I have is that I am weak minded and easily led as a friend wrote in his song a few years ago.  I wonder why I only feel the guilt just after I have consumed mass calories that I shouldn’t have.  It happens whenever I have just consumed something I don’t need in my body but couldn’t leave alone.  It was the pie, the ice cream, the chips, the cookies and the whatever.   If I would have that same feeling before I stuff that poison in my mouth I might live longer.

Well, I can dodge the subject just so long and then it comes to me.  It is sin.  Just like other things that take away from God, the food consumption is doing it this time.  There is not a lot of scripture that deals with this issue, but there is enough.  I don’t think it was such an issue back in the day because food was not so readily available and folks had to go out and hunt or grow what they eat.   Also life was not as leisurely as we all make it today either.

What is God’s perspective regarding overeating?  I will look into that within the context of the next couple of entries.  Right away I know that we are not supposed to allow our appetite to control us.  We are to control it.

In Proverbs 23: 1-2 it says, “When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what [is] before you; And put a knife to your throat If you [are] a man given to appetite.”  In other words, watch out for all that good looking lustful stuff in front of you for it is deceitful.

Our modern life today seems to revolve around food and consumption of other various things that are taken orally.  Modern life also seems to revolve around pleasure.  We do whatever makes us feel good.  And let’s face it.  Food makes us feel good.  Have you heard the term “comfort food”?  Do you see how quickly they come to mind?  Mac and cheese, meatloaf, lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs oh my!

In my business I am daily asked to meet over lunch and treated to lavish dinners by wholesalers I deal with.  It seems like all that food is coming at me from cannons lodged out in the hills.  Watch out… incoming missile!  I often decline invitations simply because I know in my weakness I will succumb to the lust of feeding the flesh.

I know it is not just me that has the problem.  In the United States today obesity has gotten to proportions it never has before.  If our politicians don’t destroy what we have been given in the United States we will do ourselves in.   Here are some statistics:

USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions:  This is old data and is as of 2003.  It is likely worse now.

• 58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese

• Eight out of 10 over 25’s Overweight

• 78% of American’s not meeting basic activity level recommendations

• 25% completely Sedentary

• 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 since 1990 Obesity Related Diseases

• 80% of type II diabetes related to obesity

• 70% of cardiovascular disease related to obesity

• 42% breast and colon cancer diagnosed among obese individuals

• 30% of gall bladder surgery related to obesity

• 26% of obese people having high blood pressure Obesity Related Disease Costs Overwhelm HealthCare System

I know I eat sometimes because it brings me comfort.  It is an emotional thing.  When my wife asks me if I am ready for dinner I am always ready.  When she asks if I am hungry I must honestly ask myself, what the heck is hunger?  I don’t think I know that.  But I am always ready to eat.  It is a mental and emotional thing for sure.  It may even be the worship of an idol.  The problem is that I am turning to food instead of turning to Christ.  I should be turning to Scripture for the comfort needed.

Is it an overeating problem or is it just plain gluttony?  Am I a glutton?  I am examining myself for the symptoms.  Hang in with me and I should be able to answer by the time I am done with this.

Let’s define it…The word “gluttony” is derived from the Latin “gluttire” meaning “to gulp down,” “to swallow.”  The Merriam-Webster dictionary says it means “excess in eating or drinking; greedy or excessive indulgence”.  Hmmmmm.

I am sure you have heard of the seven deadly sins of which Gluttony is one.

The early church fathers not only identified gluttony as a deadly sin, but went on to spell out precisely what constituted gluttony. It included the following….

–Eating before the time of meals to satisfy the palate

 –Seeking delicacies to gratify “the vile sense of taste”

 –Seeking sauces and seasonings to make food more enjoyable

–Too much intake.

–Eating too eagerly.

With a definition like that, I am guilty and feeling fully convicted.

I must change…

I am not blaming this issue I have on anyone else.  It is my problem.  I keep doing it and here I go again.  God gave us food as a blessing and I shouldn’t be abusing His gift.  I should also be respecting the body that God gave me instead of treating it with disrespect.  It is written that our bodies are a temple of His.  “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit [who is] in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s”, (1 Cor. 6:19-20).   If you take a look in Genesis (the beginning of creation) we can see that we (humans) were the last of His creations.  We were the grand finale!  We were created in His image so I (we) need to be sure the image is edifying.

I need to begin respecting my body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Ok… I know you only have the capacity for just so many words per post and this one is running over so I need to close for now.

TO BE CONTINUED…   Click here to jump to the conclusion…

FJ1

“The Tubthumper”