Diet Tips

I've been on a diet for more years than I can count. To me, "diet" is "die" with a "T" at the end. It seems as if the best approach for dieting is to 1) find out what you like most and 2) cut it out. When you learn to like other things, those will likely have to go, too. Rinse and repeat. So why do I do it? Well, it turns out that my latest physical and blood work all say I'm in pretty good health, so that's good, right?

In America we enjoy a glut of spiritual food. You can get stuff from Joel Olsteen or Kenneth Copeland and learn all about how God wishes to make you fat, dumb, and happy. No, that's not right. Healthy and wealthy. Yes, that's it. Or you can listen to the likes of Fred Phelps (who died in 2014 -- I didn't know that) and find out that "God hates fags" (Phelps's words, not mine.). Quite a range. And like food consumption, what you eat will have a major impact on your spiritual health. Eat a lot of "tasty", "rich" stuff and you'll get fat and die young. consume that hate stuff and you starve to death. Watch what you eat and obtain genuine nourishment, and you'll tend to be much healthier.

There appears to be a biblical link between food and spiritual health. "Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation." (Deut 32:15) Moses was speaking here, and "Jeshurun" appears to be a name for an Israel allegory, but the problem he cites here appears to be that God's people had one real problem -- plenty. The result of "having it good" was they forsook God.

What about us? Do we have that problem? Maybe it's actual fatness -- actual overabundance of "stuff" -- or maybe it's just too much spiritual "stuff" to choose from. So we consume what we like and ignore what we don't. "You have become dull of hearing" the author of Hebrews says, "for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Heb 5:11-14)

We love the milk thing. Tell me about how God loves me and it makes me feel warm all over. Tell me about God's grace and mercy and I feel a lot better. It's not that these aren't true; it's just that they're not all there is to it. It's just that by this time you ought to be teachers, but you need someone to teach you again the basic principles. So we mix in some pop Bible verses and some Eastern mysticism and Buddhist ideas and find we really have an audience. Just don't give us meat. Don't give us doctrine, "hard truths", actual texts, or what the Scriptures actually mean. By no means should you offer us commands from God -- that's just meddling. So we grow fat on milk and honey and can't figure out why the church in America grows weaker. Preachers actually avoid preaching the harder texts and deeper doctrines in order to avoid controversy and to make us feel better. "Fat, dumb, and happy" might be an appropriate description of much of American Christianity.

Tasty is not always healthy. Warm and fuzzy is not always best. Or, in the words of Scripture, consuming milk doesn't teach us to eat meat. Instead, "solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." Are you going to be a fat cow, or are you willing to be trained by constant practice?