Thoughts on loosing over 100 pounds of weight...
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; Isaiah 55:1-3a
How do we get Fat?
It is amazing as an individual can eat and eat and eat. I ate for pleasure, I ate because of anger. I ate when I worried. I ate when I was depressed. And in between it all I ate just because I love to EAT. I'm a textbook emotional eater. I personally refuse to blame my DNA or upbringing. This was all me eating to live and living to eat. I could blame all those church potlucks throughout the years. I grew up Baptist and we sure love our potlucks, agape feasts, hot dish Sunday. It doesn't matter we will make every excuse for why we were not in church but we never ever missed a potluck. I can remember eating a whole platter of deviled eggs. Or the ice-cream root beer floats. I'm going to make myself hungry. I did learn from my folks a good family night included some popcorn, ice-cream (Best if homemade), and chocolate cake. I'd just take it to the extreme of every night being family night. When I was in high school and the military I smoked.
When I got out I quit...or did I? I took up drinking sodas. Big ones, 44 ounces refilled 2 to 4 times a day. I was in a service job repairing garage doors and I ate almost everyday at a burger joint. Never a single that was sissy. It was double or nothing and of course super size.
Who is to blame?
My obesity took 20 years to achieve. It really isn't a proud feat. Although, as the years went by pride was feat achieved as I became a "Big Man" and I wore big man sizes I felt more grown up. I could try to psychologically analyze this to the nth degree but all that would prove would be that I'm not the one to blame. It was genetics, or family upbringing, or associated behaviors from life trauma any of which I could go down that road to achieve nothing but placing the blame somewhere else and affording myself grace to celebrate with a Carl's Jr. Super Star with cheese curly fries and the 44. I would be justifying my behavior based on external circumstances. Oh, I would agree all the fodder to fuel the blame is there. If I wanted to pass the blame I could and I would be in the world's eyes justified. Isn't that what everyone is doing these days?
It's not our fault it is my parents and the dysfunctional family syndrome. HA! There has never been in the history of mankind a truly functional family. We all have sin natures that make us all dysfunctional. The Cleavers came close but even there they kept messing things up and the Beav kept having to say, "Gosh, Wally, I'm sorry." I don't want to be like the world. I want to live with a higher standard. I believe in the God of the Bible and his Son Jesus Christ as my God and savior. Through the work of the cross Jesus has dissed the "dys" in dysfunctional. Now through the power of the Holy Spirit I am able to be forgiven of my mistakes and sin. My pride, my fears, my blatant disregard for the God of Heaven and Earth and to ignore him as my creator is sin. I had to repent. I repented many years ago but in my wealth of learning I have allow situational ethics to direct me more than the Author of the Bible. I have legalized some behaviors and liberalized other. I am saved the whole time and even able to serve God with a certain limitation. But life can become confusing and distorted. I am specifically speaking of my personal relationship to Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Tying it all together:
In dieting the hospital had me eat an 1800 calorie diet. I had been for 3 months eating a 1000 calorie diet and suffering and I wasn't loosing as much. But on the higher calorie diet I began to loose a lot more. If I go up 300 to 400 on the calories I won't loose at all and
500 over cause a gain.
So it is all about balance. Our spiritual life is the same way. We feast on the Word of God it is our sustenance. If we limit ourselves and starve our spirit of the proper amount of spiritual calories then we don't grow and we actually don't loose the fat. If we over eat on the word I know I don't retain much. Our church likes big conferences where all day long 8 to 10 speakers deliver the best meals of the word of God and we in a "All-U-Can-Eat" style overeat on the Word.
The next day we feel good but virtually everything is not retained. So the proper balance is between you and the doctor (Lord Jesus Christ). Ask him what is the appropriate amount of spiritual food you need per day and start feasting and getting spiritually healthy.
Dr. Bennett writes, "The Bible is God's nutrient to prevent your Christian life from being spiritually stunted. If you are to grow from the spiritual curiosity of babyhood, to the spiritual stabliity of youth and finally to the spiritual maturity of adulthood, it is imperative that you reveive daily nutrition from God's Word, the Bible....Yes the Word of God will indeed be a source of constant and growing delight when you understand how to digest it as your own spiritual nourishment. Through the prophet Isaiah, God graciously invites all those who have a hunger and thirst for spiritual food to dine with Him from His own banqueting table."
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; Isaiah 55:1-3a
If this didn't make sense I apologize as I am tired now and I want to go to bed. I'll fix it later should I feel inspired to do so. As I reread my ramblings it felt a little disjunct and hard to follow. That is why I need more practice at this writing thing.
