Could it be that excess weight is only a symptom, the result of our soul’s internal struggle to relinquish control, find love, and experience peace?
My heart stuck in my throat as I looked down at my medical chart. Tears stung my eyes as I tried to comprehend what the doctor had written before excusing himself to take an emergency phone call, leaving my opened chart on the desk.
Morbidly obese? How dare he! My initial anger gave way to a deep, incomprehensible pain as the truth of his words sunk in. Yes, sometimes truth is painful.
Sitting in my car sobbing, I prayed to God for this dance of dysfunction to end.
We’ve got to change the way we think about dieting and break the destructive habit before it breaks us. What we need is a way to find balance and sanity that will bring long-term peace and hope to our lives—not just short term weight loss to our bodies. What we need is the strength and determination to stand up and say, “I’m tired of focusing on food and on my weight—this insanity has to stop—enough is enough!”
For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing (Luke 12:23).
Dieting and setting boundaries with food are two entirely different things. While a focus on the first may or may not yield weight loss, I can almost assure you that a concerted effort to address the second will. Returning food to its rightful place in life can yield amazing results on any number of issues, not the least being our weight.
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Oswald Chambers said, “Christianity is not walking in the light of our convictions but walking in the light of the Lord, a very different thing. Convictions are necessary, but only as stepping stones to all that God wants us to be.” [1]
God wants us to be more than what we eat—or weigh.
Adapted from Setting Boundaries with Food, Six Steps to Lose Weight, Gain Freedom, and Take Back Your Life by Allison Bottke © 2008. Harvest House Publishers. All rights reserved.
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[1] The Quotable Oswald Chambers, Compiled and Edited by David McCasland (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 2008), 59.