Are You Eating Right?

Our diets can determine many things about us. A diet high in carbs can make us fat. It can make us insulin resistant. We do not properly metabolize the food we eat and it ends up stored by our bodies in the form of fat around our middles and chins. It can be a problem in a fast food culture. What we take into our bodies says much about what our bodies become. It can even effect how long we live and what kind of physical health we enjoy.

We need to eat to live and not live to eat. Food can replace many things in our lives. It can provide comfort; that feeling of fullness in the belly is much like feeling loved. And so we eat to feel better. We eat when we are not hungry and we eat things that are not really good for our bodies. Our six packs become kegs and our arteries clog and we wonder why we feel bad.

Much of it has to do with what's going on in our heads. If we are needy mentally and spiritually, we do what we need to to do to feel better in our heads by satisfying our stomachs. It works in the short term. We feel better. We feel satiated. But that feeling does not last long and we soon need to be fed again to recapture that sense of fullness and satisfaction. It's the same thing that is at work in the alcoholic and the drug addict and even the nicotine addict, but with a subtle difference. We have to eat. We will die if we do not eat. And so I say again, Eat to live. Do not live to eat.

It's odd how our mental and spiritual well being is tied to our physical well being in this way. It says that most of America is not only overweight, they are unhappy and unsatisfied. And that brings me to the most uncomfortable conclusion of all...

Church, You are fat. What is it you have been consuming? Do you know why you do it? Whatever 'it' is? You need to be eating better. You need to get your mind and spirit right. Set the muffin down and back away from the table. There is a carrot stick over here with your name on it. In the meantime, let me suggest you feed your soul a bit better. Then maybe some cupcakes will not seem so appealing. For a people that are supposed to be the model of self control, y'all are a mess. So brush the cookie crumbs off your chest, get up and get some spiritual exercise. Jesus had just the menu plan for you.

John 6:53-59
 53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Jesus' menu plan did not sit well with the folks of His day, but this is what He had to say to them. They were seeing cannibalism and vampiric behavior. They seemed to be taking Him literally when He was speaking metaphorically. In our day, many Christians react the same way. While they might see symbolism here, what they see is a foreshadowing of the Lord's Supper. This is also incorrect. The Lord's Supper does not bring eternal life. It is a 'remembrance' feast.

No, Jesus was speaking metaphorically here. It was His desire that we take in His very essence into ourselves, that we become who He is as much as possible. He wants us to incorporate His being and character into ourselves. If we do that, we will lose the spiritual fat. If we do that, we will find contentment spiritually and mentally and that will translate to healthier physical bodies. We will not have this nagging, undefined need to take in or eat things that are not good for us, even when we are not really hungry.

He is the Bread of Life and He's low carb, so eat as much as you want. Let's dig in.