I was 26 the day my wife Carla and I started dating. My weight that day: a healthy 195 pounds. On my wedding day, at age 27, I squeezed into the tux at a chunkier 235. In May of this year as I turned 29, I tipped the scale at just a couple ounces under 270. Muscle weight? Not even close. For my 6-foot-4-inch frame, that kind of poundage landed me squarely in the “obese” category.
And so I bit the bullet, hauled my fat rear down to Weight Watchers, handed over the American Express and told them I was ready to do whatever it takes to be healthy. My wonderful mom, herself a Weight Watchers success, had regularly encouraged me to take my health seriously.
“Go down to the hardware store!” she would say. “Pick up a 50 pound sack of cement and carry it for 10 minutes. Just think what you’re doing to your body carrying that kind of extra weight all the time!”
Ouch.
But she was right. My obesity was doing real harm to my body, and the longer I pretended it wasn’t, the farther reaching the negative effects would be. From my very first Weight Watchers meeting, I knew it was a good choice. They taught me principles like: “Monitor Yourself,” “Manage Your Thoughts,” and “Learn from Experience” — principles that started making a difference in what, and how much, I chose to eat every day. And shortly after, I started seeing measurable results.
They taught me that it’s not just about avoiding the bad stuff; I have to do good stuff. Exercise daily. Eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
The parallel for the Christian life is a strong one. I struggle with spiritual obesity, too. Giving in to sin’s temptation undermines my spiritual fitness. It’s so easy not to “monitor myself” — my sin is always so deceitful. And rationalizing my sin, letting it go unchecked, is always easier than to “manage my thoughts.”
With both my spiritual and physical diet, I’m simply not going to just not eat. Every day I intake all kinds of stuff. The question is, will I feed on good stuff, mediocre stuff, or bad stuff? It’s my choice.
Honestly, it isn’t easy to stick to my commitment to feast on the good stuff the Lord offers me and to set aside time daily with him. I know I ought to, but my pillow can scream pretty loudly when I’m stumbling to my prayer list at 6:07 a.m.
It’s the same with what I eat. In only a precious few moments does it sound good to me to sit down for a skinless chicken breast with zucchini and carrots. What I really feel like is a Burger King Double Whopper and a thick Oreo shake. Yeah, that sounds good! (By the way, that’s 171 percent of my daily allotted Weight Watchers points.)
I will intake something. Hmm, what do I feel like? Behaving exclusively for the sake of what other people think of me, trying to make myself stand out and look cool –-
man, that Double Whopper sounds great! Or maybe Megan Fox is on my Yahoo homepage today. I’ll just click through a couple more pics. Oh man, she’s so hot … yeah, that oreo milkshake is what I really want.
Really? “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?” (Isa. 55:2)
It was 10,000 daily little wrong choices that got me to obesity, and it will take another 10,000 daily right choices to get me back to a place of health. Every one of them is a battle, both in spirit and diet. How many times have I just cried out to the Lord hating that I “did it again”, longing to be finally free of sin? Why won’t God just pick me up, fly me down the road, and plop me down at a point of spiritual health and fitness? I guess that’s why it’s called the Christian “walk.”
Daily, God offers me the nutrients I really need. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells me. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry.” (Jn. 6:35). What do I say? Bye bye, milkshake.
