A missionary friend of ours from Brazil was at our place a year and a half ago and lately, what he said about weight loss has been coming back to bite me in the butt.(Oh, if ONLY it would take a BIGGER BITE!!)
But you know why it's coming back to haunt me? Because of this whole upheaval going on around here. Because I'm "preachin' it" and bangin' on my li'l pulpit with my chubby fist. Because I don't want to STAY THE SAME. Not spiritually. And I don't want to be able to pretend I never said anything about it all.
Anyway, back to my friend from Brazil...
He's of the opinion that not only does excessive weight often speak to our lack of interest in developing self-discipline, but it can also indicate how well we're letting God work in our lives.
It CAN. Obviously, lack of self-discipline is not ALWAYS the reason someone can't lose weight. But for most of us, sadly, it is.
My friend had lost a considerable amount of weight since we'd seen him the previous time and we asked what his secret was. He said he'd decided that he was tired of ignoring the physical part of his relationship with God.
Yes, our relationship with God is mostly spiritual, but did He not create each and every one of us by hand?
In his presentation at our church that Sunday, our friend said the mission of the camp his team has started down in Brazil is to address the WHOLE person, not just the spiritual part, which is what most North American churches and camps tend to focus on. You know, like if we're spiritually on track, it doesn't matter how we look.
But really it does a little.
Not only are we treating our bodies ~ hand-crafted by God ~ like crap, but we're not physically good witnesses for Him then, either. If people can clearly see I'm having self-discipline issues ~ in any area, be it my eating habits or how much time I spend on the computer (purely hypothetical examples, of course!!) ~ that doesn't really speak well of God's power in my life, now does it?
Until that day, I'd never ONCE thought about it like that before.
I need to change my eating habits, not only for my own personal health, not only for a better (hopefully LONGER) future with my family, but for how well people can see Christ in me.
Plain and simple.
