it ain't rocket science, folks!

i hesitate even blogging about this because i find it petty and insignificant in light of the tests and challenges our dear friends in Christ have been facing lately... but starting today, my sister and my sweet friend, traci, are going to be "competing" in a "biggest loser" contest between the three of us :) this whole weight loss thing has been looming over me for, oh, about 8 years now :) and to be quite honest with you, i've only recently become less obsessed with it. i am praying it's a mark of maturity, not complacency! :) i realize that my life is rich and full of blessings despite the number on the tag in my jeans :) but also, in an effort to become truly healthy, i need to pay better attention to my food intake and calorie expenditure.

it never ceases to amaze me how people will go on and on about how they CANNOT lose weight on their own, no diets EVER WORK, it must be genetic, yada yada yada... so they opt to have gastric bypass surgery. well, guess what genius :), all that surgery does is reduce the size of your stomach so you take in less food - that's why you lose weight. less food! it reminds me of one of my dad's sayings "farther, faster, a little less time at the table" :) that's all that weight loss boils down to! burning more calories than you put in your body... it ain't rocket science - and yet we as americans spend billions of dollars trying to find the quick fix. but nothing worth having is ever reached by a quick fix!

it makes me think of my spiritual life - how many times have i pleaded with God to change me... my thoughts, my words, my actions... but change, in and of itself, is a daily process of surrender and it is gradual, not immediate. He absolutely could change me over night - it is not beyond His power to do so - but what would i have learned in the process? what would that teach me about Him and His unfailing, unconditional love for me? i must perservere through the process, feel the relentless heat of the refiner's fire, to come through it all glowing and brilliant. i must learn to love God more than i love the food... to make Him my focus and my sustenance. i think that's why there is such a struggle with eating disorders, weight issues, etc. it's a literal metaphor of our spiritual hunger and our desire to be filled. but we have to fill our hearts and our bodies with things that will sustain us, cause us good and not harm.

so, all that being said, today marks the day for me to stop loving the food and start loving God more. to put God's holy temple (my body!) and the maintenance of it before my selfish, pleasure-seeking, traitorous flesh! to make this more than obsessing about numbers and measurements... to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,when you lie down and when you get up." Deut. 6:5-7

and maybe, if we do these things, loving Him with everything that we have, there won't be much more room for dwelling on and obsessing over things that are of no eternal significance!