From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things
at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law,
and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
“Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!
~ Matthew 16:21,22
As sincere as Peter was, though he knew Jesus so very well, Peter’s “will” wasn’t the will of God. If it had been, I would be dead in my sins…stuck in my own slime pit, trying to claw my way to God.
He had walked with the Master–his Friend, Teacher, and Confidant.
Did Peter sense the shroud of darkness descending?
There would be no place of honor on the right and the left of Jesus anytime soon.
Victory songs and celebratory cheers would have to wait. Palm Sunday was great, but that now seemed like a lifetime ago. What was ahead?
The end of this season of the disciples’ lives was imminent. Was there a sense of failure? Of waiting? Of foreboding? Of anticipation?
While their own desires wouldn’t be realized, they stood on the cusp of something far greater.
Did they fathom just how far-reaching the plan of God was?
Sometimes I hold fast to my own will…it seems so godly….as if it were birthed in heaven itself, steeped in Scripture. Bible verses support my stand, my way of thinking. I boldly take a stand for the Lord by declaring “Thus saith the Lord” about ______________ (whatever it may be).
What if I have missed the point? What if, like Peter, my will actually runs counter to a greater plan of God’s?
The cross demonstrates as nothing else that God’s will might be so very counter-intuitive. It didn’t “make sense.” How could anything good come of a righteous man dying the shameful death of a criminal on a Roman cross?
How indeed.
What am I clinging to today that may be counter to God’s plan? What must I relinquish in order to experience a far greater plan? It may mean darkness, unanswered questions, a long wait. But is it possible it will be worth it? That I should open my mind to the possibility that I am…dare I say it…wrong?
About 2000 years ago, Jesus, King of the Universe, condescended from the throne of Heaven. He stepped out of incomprehensible light and love to walk this earth, putting on flesh. Perfect, sweet fellowship within the Trinity was transformed. Moved by compassion, he made such a sacrifice even before the walk to the cross. The expanse between man and Holy God–immeasurable. This, the only way to bridge the chasm.
Even before the pain, suffering, and anguish of the cross, Jesus’ offer to humanity is incomprehensible. He was GOD, existing in perfection as King of all! Yet he willingly stepped out of Heaven to walk among us where he subjected himself to human “stuff”–physical pain, emotional upheavals, rejection, loss.
He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.
~John 1:11 NLT
Why on earth did he do that? He had literally everything.
While it is our tendency to grab for more than is ours, he set all that was his aside.
What manner of God is this? He wants relationship so much with you, with me, that he set aside his role as King of the Universe to be Savior of the world. He did this though it cost him everything.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,
so that you by his poverty might become rich.
~ 2 Corinthians 8:9
What will my response be to this grace…today?
What will your response be to this grace today?
Jesus did this. History records his presence on the earth. The question for each of us is So what?
Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian who survived life at the Nazi concentration camps, was asked by a reporter in a press conference if it was difficult remaining humble while hearing so much acclaim. She replied immediately, “Young man, when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments in the road and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give Him all the praise and all the honor.”
I heard this illustration at last week’s Bible Study Fellowship lecture in Auburn, California. It struck me afresh just how much Jesus sacrificed when he set aside Kingly glory to take on flesh, to walk this earth for 33 years and to then go to the cross.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus who,
though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him
the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~ Philippians 2:5-11
Jesus was/is GOD, very GOD, yet he chose to set aside everything for the sake of bridging the gigantic, unfathomable chasm that existed between Holy God and frail man. Jesus laid down what was rightfully HIS – the glory that he enjoyed with the Father before the world began (see John 17:5 and John 1:1).
Both the donkey and Jesus offer me examples of godly humility. The donkey never thought the honor and praise was for him (so often I do!) and Jesus himself set aside his “rights” as God the Son to do the will of the Father–to meet the great need of humans for a Savior.
How unlike Jesus I am. I grab for what I think is mine: “My food! My body! My way! My will! MINE MINE MINE!” like the gulls in the Finding Nemo movie. I am not even like the donkey. Instead, I am eager to claim any praise as “MINE! MINE! MINE!” as well.
This attitude is a stumbling block for me in my quest to grow more like Jesus. Sanctification is a process…a long, slow, arduous process of relinquishing, clamoring for what is “lost,” surrendering yet again, grabbing it back again, and on and on it goes. I must humbly acknowledge that all that I am, all that I have is for nothing if it is outside of God’s perfect will for me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world,
yet forfeits his soul?
Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
~ Matthew 16:25-26
Today, I will stop hollering “MINE! MINE! MINE!” I will keep in mind the donkey who humbly carried Jesus out into the world. I will ponder the example of my Savior who possessed everything, but, for my sake gave it all up. I will choose to release my hold on things to which I cling and throw wide my arms to the unknown (and somewhat frightening) possibilities found when I walk in the heart of God’s will.
Practically Speaking: What is something you declare is “MINE! MINE! MINE!” that God may be calling you to lay down? I don’t have to look much farther than what I eat to find an answer to that. Am I really hungry? Is my body calling for food? Talk about mundane! God uses even something as commonplace as food to show me just how greedy and grabby I am for what isn’t mine.
Have you wondered for a while about diving in and giving Thin Within a try?
Are you someone who has dabbled in Thin Within but want a fresh start?
Have you been motoring along, but want a connection with a group online that is pursuing doing this thing together?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, then please consider joining us as we launch a brand new session of our online class, studying the Thin Within workbook series!
April 4th is our first introductory session…so you can order a workbook (if you don’t have one) before that time and be raring to go. The first assignment will be given following April 4ths class. April 4th will be sort of an overview as we launch into the material, discussing the first lesson on April 11th.
We meet on Wednesdays at 4:30 Pacific, 6:30pm Central or 7:30pm Eastern for an hour-long chat online. I also like to have everyone’s email address so I can send out transcripts, additional resources, assignment information and reminders–usually about two emails each week.
If you are interested, you can get the first workbook kit at Amazon or, better (Amazon takes a big chunk of the purchase price), order directly from Joe or Pam Donaldson by calling Thin Within’s toll-free number 877-729-8932 9am-5pm Eastern time. The other three workbooks are available from the Donaldsons. It doesn’t matter which workbook you use, but if you have never gone through workbook #1, I recommend doing that. Or if you need a fresh start. You can use the link for contacting me that is in the margin of the website here to let me know to add you to the class email list. I promise not to sell your email address! 🙂
If you want to know more about the workbook, there is information about the workbook on another page at my blog here and a video where I tell you about it found here.
Hope you will join us! Even better…gather some others together at your church to join with YOU! 🙂
Leaving the familiar behind is uncomfortable, even painful. Stepping out into the unknown requires a huge leap of faith. When we dare to try Thin Within or to venture toward some other “intuitive eating” approach to managing our health (food, eating and size), this leap of faith is definitely required. We have relied upon the tools of scales, calorie (or point) counters, food labels and bathroom scales all our lives. The thought of leaving all of those tools behind is counter-intuitive, certainly! God’s invitation to trust him as we step forward into the unknown comes with a lot of uncertainty. What guarantees do we have? Only that he will show us what he has in mind…in his way and in his time.
Last week, I had a tennis match scheduled early in a town a 60 minute drive away (when there is no traffic). Warm-up time was 8:30am, so, to account for the traffic on the main highway and the plan to stop for a quick breakfast, I left at 6:30am (I am a tennis die-hard!). Conditions where I live in Cool, California, definitely weren’t ideal for a tennis match:
Everything indicated I was a nut to leave the warmth and dryness of my home to make this trek for a tennis match that might not even happen! The sky threatened to unload even more rain on an already saturated world. I had yet to receive a call or email from my team captain indicating the match was cancelled. I had a decision to make: Would I go against what made sense, travel the distance, battle the traffic, risking the possibility it might be for nothing and the match cancelled after I got an hour down the road? If I waited to leave, hoping for the cancellation call, what if it didn’t come? I might risk being late and possibly bring my team a default! NOT a good idea. So, I resolutely packed my car with my tennis gear and started down the highway, wondering if I would end up turning around.
About 15 minutes from home, I wondered…maybe this wasn’t so futile after all!
The distant horizon seemed to breathe a bit of a promise. But in the foothills, these things can be deceptive. Would the journey be worth it?
As I got on the highway about 20 minutes from my home, it was clear that the worst of the weather was behind me, but I still wasn’t convinced! Not until I got farther down the highway.
By the time I drove past Sacramento (a good 40+ miles from my house), if I looked behind me, I could see why I had wondered, but going forward…there were barely any clouds in the sky! Once to my destination town, I couldn’t believe the springlike conditions!
Having stopped for a quick bite to eat within 15 minutes of my destination, I received a text from another player on the team who lives near me in the foothills. She hadn’t left her home yet and it was, in fact, pouring rain on her end of the line. “I assume the match is cancelled?” I responded with a text joking that the opposing team might think we were nuts for even wondering given that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky down in the valley! Hard to believe that the photo above was taken just an hour and a half after I left my home where the sky was so dark and everything so wet!
Although there was no rain and the match wasn’t cancelled, we did have to do battle with extreme wind. I thought one of my teammates was going to be blown right off the court! It wasn’t for the faint of heart and I, unfortunately, lost my match in a third set tiebreaker.
But I couldn’t help but wonder if the faith required to leave the warmth of my home that morning wasn’t at least somewhat similar to what we are called to when we feel God leading us to let go of all our diets, dieting paraphernalia, beliefs about food and body weight and to join him on an adventure to trust him with our body’s signals…to eat when we sense a physical sensation of hunger, stop when we are no longer hungry, to eat foods that are “normal” and enjoyable to us and to be sensitive to the many other reasons that we feel drawn to food, going to God to have that “heart hunger” satisfied instead.
I wonder if “leaving and going” to the “land” that God has for us might not be rewarded with “almond blossoms and blue skies” like I was as I left home last Tuesday.
The return trek back to the familiar after my tennis match looked pretty unintimidating. I even had the top down in my convertible!
Thirty minutes into my drive back toward the foothills, though, I was wondering…
And by the time I was here:
…it was clear I needed to pull over and put the convertible top back up. Sure enough, I was heading back to the familiar…back to the dark, dreary, wetness.
I want to encourage you…if you are uncertain about the invitation to “leave and go”–to set aside all that you “know” about food, eating, and diets, to risk, to change, to be challenged in a new adventure with “intuitive” eating…a non-diet approach…be it Thin Within or something similar…it will be worth it. There is something waiting for you that is vastly different than anything you have experienced before. It is freedom. It may take a lot of faith to keep on the road. Doubts may assail you. Everything may seem to indicate that this isn’t “intuitive” at all! But hang in there! Victory you have longed for awaits down the road!
How about you? Are you considering Thin Within or another intuitive eating approach? What questions, doubts, fears do you have? Are you willing to give it a shot? 🙂
This blog post is actually from an email that I received. Jill Robbins shared such valuable insights with me in her email that I asked her if I could share them here at the blog and she graciously said yes! Thank you, Jill!
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A month or so ago I had decided to return to eating mindfully, but then I decided one day, that I knew best, because the weight wasn’t budging, and started counting calories.Then when that wasn’t working as I’d hoped, I started using my old weight watchers material.In the midst of all this, I heard a message on the radio about how you can lie to everyone else, but you can’t lie to yourself.I can’t lie to myself!
Back in November God called me to quit dieting and assume a proper attitude about my weight, food and exercise.I wrote it down and emailed a trusted friend so I couldn’t deny it. I’m not sure I struggle with food as comfort, though I’m sure I do at some level. I struggle most with using diets to gain control of my life.I guess I’m a control freak.I try and grab the reigns and say, “OK, Lord, I’ll take it from here.”Then I inevitably fail an beat myself up over it.
Yesterday I came across something online and it totally spoke to me.It was an article by Mary Louise Bringle.In one paragraph she states, “Diets also don’t work for the psychological/spiritual reason that we cannot heal an obsession by replacing it with a counter obsession. Compulsively scrutinizing what we may and may not allow ourselves to eat merely perpetuates our consuming preoccupation with food.”That is something I felt and knew in my soul, but I didn’t know what to do with it.She also said diets are the path of works versus grace.I totally get that!I tried to deny it by justifying in my mind that I wanted to be healthier, but really, I just wanted to be thinner.I tried to justify it by asking my husband if doing weight watchers was spiritually wrong. He looked at me, head cocked, and I think he had to suppress a laugh, but for my sake he answered honestly from his knowledge.He didn’t think it was sinful. But one thing he did say was that anything that you (or anyone) obsess over IS a sin.I left off the last piece of information and continued on my way until the guilt consumed me and I gave it again to God.I asked God to convict me. I asked him to fill me with guilt if I should not be dieting.And true to His character, he did.
I’m really not sure where to go from here.One thing I do know is that I have to make peace with the body I have right now.I have be willing to take care of my body by eating properly and exercising appropriately even if that means I will not ever be thin. I will respect my body even if it doesn’t get skinny.That’s where I think God wants me right now. I need to do what’s right even if I don’t see the fruit of my efforts, but instead look to God for my hope, my peace, my comfort.Thin is not good, fat is not bad.God is good, sin is bad.If I can focus more on that then I think I’m going to be ok.
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How about you? Do you find yourself exalting “thinness” over freedom? What do you think about what Mary Louise Bringle says in her article? “Diets also don’t work for the psychological/spiritual reason that we cannot heal an obsession by replacing it with a counter obsession. Compulsively scrutinizing what we may and may not allow ourselves to eat merely perpetuates our consuming preoccupation with food.” Thanks again, Jill!
Obedience requires sacrifice. I say NO to what I want in the moment, trusting that there is a greater reward…knowing that SATISFACTION (which sometimes will be delayed) will meet my soul, even as I refuse to grasp for instant GRATIFICATION.
Today, as I look back over yesterday, I have to say this…no, I must shout it from the rooftops!
OBEDIENCE FEELS BETTER
THAN ANY FOOD TASTES!
How about you? Will you join me today in saying NO to impulses to eat when we aren’t hungry? Will we trust that letting go of our desire for instant gratification will yet bring a deeper satisfaction–a saturation of our souls with God’s complete “enoughness?”
There can be no doubt that the past 18 months have brought uncharted difficulties in my life–like a raging sea with occasional calm:
Facing an 86 year old Mom who, one day engages in conversation and the next looks at me with confusion, and cries: “Where is mother?” Has opportunity for restoration passed?
Evaluating the ramifications of an empty nest as my “biggest fan” heads off to Wheaton College in the fall…Lord, is she ready? Have I taught her enough?
Putting the pieces of a 27-year-long marriage back together after the demon of depression had it’s way with my best friend and hero for 15 months. How can I trust again, Lord?
Wondering what will become of my socially challenged son as he, too, heads off (against his will) to Montana Wilderness School of the Bible to experience community and whatever God has for him there. Will he ever be “normal,” Lord?
And with these challenges (and more) have returned old habits that I thought (in pride) were ancient history. Apparently not. Try as I might to deny it, what I see is that I have turned back to food once again to be my “comforter.” I have turned a cold shoulder and shaken a fist at the Lord who loves me with an attitude of entitlement and rebellion: I deserve better!
I struggle with defeat.
I am supposed to be beyond this. I lead Thin Within classes! I write material for the company! Sheesh! I even have one of the best literary agents in the business and new plans for a book to help women on this journey….and yet, here I am…struggling with this…again? Or is it STILL, Lord? How can I pretend to have anything to offer others when I am here? Worse…how can YOU stand me!? I can hardly stand myself! Such hypocrisy!
I go to the Word of God. Renew my mind, Lord.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.
He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.
~ Psalm 107:19-21
God lovingly leads me to ancient pages. Such wisdom, such love, such grace and mercy flow off of the page, dripping, it seems into the ache of my heart. Forgive me, Lord. I have looked to counterfeits for what only you can give. You alone hold the answers and Comfort I need. Thank you for your unfailing love, for your kindness and all you do for me…
Deuteronomy soothes me:
But if from there you seek the LORD your God,
you will find him if you look for him
with all your heart and with all your soul.
When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you,
then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him.
For the LORD your God is a merciful God;
he will not abandon or destroy you
or forget the covenant with your forefathers,
which he confirmed to them by oath.
~ Deuteronomy 4:29-31
Today, is a day to return and obey. I have a merciful, loving God who doesn’t abandon me, even in my rebellion. He intends these trials to lead me to greater reliance on Him. Today, I will cooperate with Him. I will link arms with Him. I will walk with Him.
How about you? Is it time to take stock? Have you been using food for something other than what it is intended? Is God beckoning, wooing you back to Himself?
Come and join us for a chat on The Fight of Faith! Today at 4:30pm Pacific Time or 6:30 Central or 7:30 Eastern at http://www.thinwithin.org/chat.php I hope to see you there!
