“Of all the disasters that can befall mankind hunger is the worst.”
– Friar Tuck, Robin Hood TV Series from late 1950s
I posted the above quote, hoping to stimulate some conversation. I guess context would have been helpful.
Let’s back up a bit. My family and I are total NERDs. We are backwards and sheltered and all of that good stuff that keeps us enjoying one another’s company, hugging a lot even though the kids are 15 and 17, and generally one another’s best friends and worst enemies. We enjoy spending evenings and weekends together and when one of us has an outing or other social event that takes us away from home, there is a distinct “something is missing” sort of feeling. Of course, as the kids have gotten older, we encourage that more and more so they won’t totally be social outcasts. 🙂
Some of the things we enjoy doing in the evenings we spend together include silly games (“Attack of Killer Bunnies,” which is a very complicated card game!) and watching movies (Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D is what we were doing when the picture to the right was taken!) old old TV shows now available on DVD…like I Love Lucy, Hogan’s Heroes or Get Smart, or, most recently, The Adventures of Robin Hood, which is a “vintage” TV series, filmed in the 1950s in the UK for US television. Truly, the first two seasons were acting and script-writing at its finest!
In Robin Hood, Friar Tuck is a rather rotund character who bows for food and ale nearly as much as he does for the virtues encouraged by God in Holy Writ. Often, levity is provided for the viewer by the good Father struggling between joining comrades or “lads” in the next task and tale, or being waylaid due to the tantalizing teasing of various culinary delights provided at ale house, castle, or chef in Sherwood Forest.
It is during one such scene that the above quote was extracted. Friar Tuck, who is definitely not lacking a steady supply of food to sustain his ample girth, quips, “Of all the disasters that can befall mankind hunger is the worst” as he dives in to a feast provided by Robin’s men.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the good Friar ever had experienced hunger (save when he was on a holy fast, which does happen in the series on occasion). This was not in the context of lack of provision…children in Ethiopia with distended bellies, or tragic circumstances in Haiti. This was spoken by a clearly well-fed individual, who simply likes to avoid ever feeling hungry.
I wonder how many of us in the US can relate to this sentiment. In this “land of plenty,” most of us aren’t going to bed at night without plenty of food to sustain a healthy life. (Of course, this isn’t always true, but for the majority it is.)
Yet many people don’t ever want to experience the legitimate sensation of being hungry. If we do agree with Friar Tuck and avoid hunger at all costs, it is difficult to ever really know what we need to eat, when, and how much. In fact, much modern dietary advice has focused on telling us we shouldn’t ever allow ourselves to feel hungry and this and that are what we should eat and they even tell us when, as without their advice, we wouldn’t know when to eat.
If one has this particular view…that the worst disaster to befall mankind is to experience an empty stomach, I believe we strive against God and the way he made us. We also fail to learn His sufficiency and provision for us.
Contrast this to the following quote, from Dr. Rita Hancock at her blog:
Many of us are downright petrified of hunger, as though it might actually kill us to feel a teensy bit hungry for a while. But, to look at hunger as a song as a song of praise that God programmed into us is exactly what we need to reframe our thinking about hunger.
We need to retrain our thinking if we are going not just to release extra weight or to become healthier physically, but also spiritually and to stay that way. If we wait on the Lord to teach us to think differently about Him, about ourselves, about hunger, if we choose to reject the “Friar Tuck Mentality”–that hunger is an enemy, a disaster–and, instead, choose to think of it as a song of praise to God, then we are heading strongly along the right road.
Thank you, Lord for this truth and that you are in the business transforming us by the renewing of our minds and our thinking!
…Ok, I know he was just doing his job. But I really didn’t *want* a “fitness assessment” in the first place. I told the marketing director from the racquet and fitness club precisely that. I just wanted the free orientation with the personal trainer that was offered so I could learn how to use the cardio equipment and weight machines should the urge strike me to actually work out.
Over the phone, you can’t really tell if someone is rolling their eyes, of course, but I got the distinct impression he was.
He kindly explained (in that patronizing sort of way) that I should want to know my body composition, get nutrition counseling, and yada yada…I had to (kindly, I hope) interrupt him and explain, “Look, here’s the deal. I come from a place of obsession with this stuff. When I wasn’t Reebok Stepping or pumping iron with the Smith Machine, I was studying to become an American Council of Exercise certified personal trainer. I used to work out so much that the staff at the gym said they were having my mail forwarded to the Stairmaster.”
He had no idea who he was talking to. I mean, I was the Workout Queen. I literally won the title in 1996–had my before and after pics on the front of the club newsletter. I was a Gym Rat Extraordinaire and they even gave me my own parking place (I am not kidding!). My husband calls that my ‘bulimic period,’ since I would eat pretty much whenever, whyever, and whatever and then exercise all the more to make up for all the “energy input,” sometimes 3 hours a day. That was before I started training for the marathons with long runs that could take 6 hours. I know that most of this was behind me by 1998, but I sense just how quickly I could return to it. It frightens me.
I tried explaining to “John” on the phone that I am now in a place of enjoying my freedom and only beginning to try to re-enter this “world” but, this time, do so sanely. I do not want to know numbers of any kind. Not even sets and reps for the free weights I might or might not use. I have been walking in freedom and I want to continue to do so. No weight, no measurements, no calipers, thank you very much!
When we hung up, I thought he understood and I figured that the person that I would have the appointment with would as well.
Truthfully, my family and I joined this club to enjoy tennis and racquetball, primarily…it is closer to home than the club that we have been members of for the past four months (and have hardly used), and if we want to do additional exercising, we could.
So yesterday, my appointment time arrived and “Cheryl” greeted me warmly, sat me down by her desk and got out all the paperwork for the “fitness assessment.” So I explained it all again. To her credit, she actually seemed to applaud my aversion to numbers, labels, scales, and charts.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
– Galatians 5:1
I was surprised by myself, though. She described this computerized print-out program thingie I could get. Each time I go in, I can tell the computer something or other and it will spit out the program I should do today. I was surprised at how tempted I felt by that…just to have a “check list” of things to do when I go in…then the incentive program they have…earn points for each visit. Oh my word. Is that stuff ever tempting. I don’t really understand this part of me that seems driven by these sorts of things.
I didn’t give in to any of that yet. Well, that isn’t so, as I did log in to the Fit Rewards program online to see what they give points for. Thankfully, I could see it wasn’t likely to be a good fit for me just yet.
I wonder when I will be free from fear? This is like I felt about adjusting my food about 8 years ago. Maybe now it is time to apply these principles to this area of my life. I want NOT to live in fear. But to really BE free…not just avoid, but experience HIS sufficiency to keep me from obsessing and losing myself.
Cheryl asked me what my goals are…I have to keep that ever before me. I just want to have fun and stay sane with this stuff. I would love to worship the Lord as I move my body. If I could do these things, I would be thrilled. Add to that fun with my family members or new friends on the tennis court and I would be really thrilled. Simple, it seems. I just want to live LIFE. To be “normal,” free from obsession. I want to glorify and praise the Lord with my thoughts and my actions and my words.
Do you remember the original Star Trek series? Captain Kirk and the crew of the Star Ship, “Enterprise,” were “on a five-year mission to seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no man had gone before.” On their quest for new frontiers, they consistently ran across evil alien villains and situations that caused alarm to life, limb, and ship!
During perilous times when the ship was in danger, the ship and crew would jump to “Red Alert.” Crimson lights flashed. A klaxon sounded. Battle stations were assumed. Sometimes, during the turbulence and explosions that occurred during these near-disasters, crew members flew from one side of the set…er…ship’s bridge… to the other. Scotty or Sulu blasted the phasers at the enemy, yet again defying intergalactic disaster! The “bad guys” were either blown up or conceded in retreat. We breathed a sigh of relief. Today would not be the day that Captain Kirk’s mission would come to an end.
Over the past 15 months or so, I have experienced a “disaster” of my own. Worse than any “salt vampire” (see image to the left) or other evil alien enemy, however, I have been battling an enemy I can’t seem to ditch. As ridiculous as it sounds, the enemy that hounds me is my pride.
Just recently, I have begun a somewhat tenuous recovery. Even so, the enemy remains. Like a scanner on Enterprise sensing the presence of a life form “from beyond,” there is a “Holy Spirit” alarm blaring.
I first heard it yesterday and it is present in my life as I begin this day as well. It tells me to be vigilant.
I am studying the book of Daniel during my quiet time and, as my eyes fell upon the last phrase in chapter 4 this morning, it resonated with truth for me today:
…those who walk in pride he is able to humble. ~ Daniel 4:37b
Somehow I have a perverse way of changing delight in being obedient into pride. Pride keeps resurfacing. It makes no earthly sense to me! Anything good or godly in me, if there be such a thing, is a product not of me, my efforts, or wisdom. The truth is, I am but a humble servant of the Most High. GOD alone is to be exalted.
I get so darn excited…truly buoyant when I finally string together some babysteps of obedience. My flesh takes that and runs with it into self-exaltation. RED ALERT!!! RED ALERT! And if you will pardon my reference to more than one SciFi series, “Danger!! Danger, Will Robinson!”
I long to find the balance between praising GOD for HIS work in me and proper humility.
His Word says in Philippians 2:13: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Anything I may do that even remotely seems obedient, good, God-honoring…well, it is ONLY because His Spirit is at work in me motivating me and giving me the ability and desire. This is all grace! I think it is time for an installment at the gratitude blog. I have found that gratitude is a sure antidote to pride.
Time to recommit to practicing it a bit more. I know that when I choose to give gratitude to God, it puts me right in my place where I belong. Today, I will begin afresh committing my way to practicing gratitude.
Long ago, I tried to apply the principles of eating according to physical cues and to go to God for all the other times I was tempted to eat when I wasn’t physically hungry. For some reason, I just couldn’t pull it together. What sounded so simple on paper or on the computer screen seemed a huge impossibility for me. Of course, this made me feel like I was nuts. Why couldn’t I do this? It seemed so simple!
In those days, I didn’t realize it, but there were truly reasons I was in a place of “I can’t.”
I didn’t understand that. So I would beat myself up. I looked at the whole thing–all the weight I wanted to lose and how I constantly ate more than I needed–and just didn’t have a clue why it seemed so HARD. I felt so hopeless!
“I can’t DO this!”
I was right! I couldn’t.
But God wanted to take me PAST the “I can’t!”
God was at work in my life doing things, teaching me things, leading me into recovery over trauma…to forgiveness of myself, others, and, even, Him. I didn’t realize how much I had allowed things I had done in my past or that had been done to me to define me. There was such shame there. God had great plans to free me from all of that…In fact, at the cross the victory had been won. He wanted me to experience it.
I literally had emotional “triggers” that God wanted me to bring to him. His will was for me to stop being in that place of “I can’t.” He used this struggle to show me I needed to bring each of these things to him, to confess what I was struggling with and to ask him for HIS will in this thing. It meant sitting in the pain and emptiness. It meant waiting. NOT something that is fun to do. How much easier it is to stuff the emptiness with food. But he wanted me to wait wait wait…and invite Him into the thing that was causing me grief.
It is a bit more complicated than I have made it sound, but the fact remains, it was a time when “I can’t” was a fact of my life more often than not.
Much healing has taken place. God has taught me a great deal. He has brought me through a ton of stuff and I wouldn’t trade the painful poking, prodding, and flushing out of the wound, given all I have experienced, all He has given me. He continues to do this today of course with the many many “do overs” that he brings my way. But more and more I see what is going on and I welcome it…well, sort of. At least more than in the past.
In any event, something that struck me not that long ago is this: At this stage of my life, any struggle I have to respond to my body’s physical cues to eat or not eat…well, it no longer boils down to an “I can’t.” It is now, simply, an “I won’t!”
Yup, now I am in a different place. I must admit that it is really really humbling, but with all the healing God has brought to me, the experience of living according to these principles imperfectly, but nevertheless seeing changes inside and out, with the renewing of my mind that he has done…wow. I have been transformed! I see it so clearly most of the time! I think differently about food, about portions and, even, about my body and about who I am. Sure, there is still room for much growth. Definitely! But right now, I am in a radically different place than 5 or 10 years ago.
5 or 10 years ago, it really was an “I can’t.”
Now, when I am out of line in my eating, it is definitely more of a rebellious, “I won’t.”
So, what is it for you? Do you find yourself again and again saying, “I can’t do this! What is wrong with me!?” If so, then I urge you…first, don’t beat yourself up. You may really be in a place of “I can’t!”
But secondly, you can experience God’s grace and healing in a practical way. I suggest that you stop focusing on the food and your body and start welcoming what he plans to do INSIDE you. It seems the long way around, perhaps, but it is where the change HAS to begin.
For others of you (and I include myself in this), if you have experienced his healing emotionally and you know that saying “I can’t” now is really somewhat flaky, then join me. Let’s face into our rebellion head on and refuse now to claim “I can’t.” Let’s choose to give God credit for the work He has done and own that we are really digging in our heels to say “I won’t” instead. Sure, let’s keep allowing the inner healing work. But let’s also own that we can TOO say NO to food when we aren’t hungry! Like Dr. Rita says in her book, Jesus is the Lord of me and he says I am lord over my food. I can TOO say no!
For me, I have to be willing to use words like “obey” and “sin” to describe what I am doing (or not doing). That is all there is to it. It isn’t about if I feel like eating the way God calls. It is about obedience. It is about all the other things that happen in life that I want to deal with by eating and, instead of eating, asking God what HE wants for that moment, that experience, that pain.
Again, I am speaking to myself and to anyone who, like me, has seen a huge inner healing and transformation that God has done already. If you know you haven’t yet allowed God access to your unmet needs, expectations, disappointments, and deep wounds, then sure… “I can’t” may be more accurate. Please, then, know that it may be time for you to stop fixating on the scale, the food, clothes, etc., and time to be still and know that He is God. It is time to feel the pain and bring it to him. He will bring you to a place where you can in the strength He provides.
For those of us who WON’T, let’s quit with the “I won’ts.” One moment at a time. Ask for God to soften our hearts to make us willing and do our part to BE willing. Wow, there are blessings in obedience. It is awesome to walk in humility and praise God for the way He is at work in us to will and to do HIS good pleasure!
Ok…I have to ‘fess up. It is time to “come clean.”
I have been reading another book. One that wasn’t even written by Judy, or anyone at Thin Within.
This book has been the best thing to come down the pike in…well…a LONG time. Maybe since Thin Within! Actually, if I can be quite truthful, lots of things I wish we had said just a bit differently when we were writing the Thin Within book, have been said just right in this easy-to-read treatise.
Book titles aside (and I wish it wasn’t called what it is, but I think I understand why Zondervan and the author chose it), The Eden Diet by Dr. Rita Hancock is well worth the read. Absolutely! Dr. Hancock consistently demonstrates that she knows her medical “stuff,” and we are reminded of some basic bible truths as well as her take on what really does make good nutrition sense. You might be surprised, in fact.
This lady isn’t just one of those MD quack-type people either. She was an undergraduate at Cornell University and did some intensive studies of “gastric diseases.” She has studied nutrition until the cows come home. And well, you can read more about her at her website. I won’t repeat it all here.
More than just an expert from afar, however, Dr. Hancock has also struggled deep in the trenches of obesity–she knows what it is like to have a HUGE hurdle ahead of her and to rise to conquer it! She has allowed God to transform her thinking, has lost a boatload of weight and has kept it off “imperfectly” for 25 years. This lady has a lot to say and she knows of what she speaks.
How, you may wonder, if I was the collaborator (writer) for the Thin Within book, can I possibly so unashamedly declare the praises of “the competition?” The way I figure it…the reality is, we are all in this together. If someone can say it in a way that I think is helpful, then I am ALL for it! Especially if every page holds truth that is consistent with my life’s message and, more importantly, what I believe God wants for his people. He calls us to freedom–listening to our bodies, engaging our brains, and using the spiritual insight he has given us.
What is the difference between this book and Thin Within? Why might someone enjoy reading this book? Well, Dr. Hancock is very NO-nonsense in her approach. She cuts to the chase in a point-blank sort of way. There is no pussy footing around. If you find yourself a bit tender or a sensitive person, she may be a bit “harsh” for you. But what I found was that, for me, she was downright practical. Don’t get me wrong…she blends this with plenty of biblical wisdom and spiritual insight. She just doesn’t mince her words.
Where Thin Within has chapters chock-full of invaluable exercises that have helped many of us get to the root of our overeating and obsessive behaviors, Dr. Rita is more likely to say, “Sure, you can ask why, but the point is, you have to STOP it. To STOP it, you have to retrain your mind to think and believe differently! So HOP to it! Oh…and here is HOW!” (This isn’t a quote, so please don’t email me that I misquoted her…it is her tone I am trying to capture!)
For the record, I didn’t find one word of condemnation in The Eden Diet. I haven’t launched into the workbook study yet and plan to soon.
Anyhow, in the days ahead, I will likely share some of the nuggets of wisdom I have gotten (and will continue to get) from reading The Eden Diet and working through the workbook. In the meantime, let me say this…where I needed a drill sergeant to sort of call me to HUP TO and to RISE UP and DO that to which God has clearly called, God provided Dr. Rita’s voice in her book. In the past two weeks that I have spent reading this book, I have found myself seeing all my many excuses (more than I thought!) for what they are…SIN! 🙂 Not only that, but well…I have been STOPPING it! WHOO HOO! My size 16s are fitting better now. But the best part of all is the clean conscience that I have as I stand before the Lord…obedience IS possible, one baby step at a time.
This book gets 5 stars from me…HUGE thumbs up! WHOO HOO! Thank you, Dr. Rita Hancock and thank you Jesus for providing someone to say it short, sweet, to the point but purely! Pointing to you!
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
~ Psalm 103:11-13
People say that this time of year…about a month after Christmas…is one of the most depressing times for many. The joy of the Christmas holiday has passed, the bills from Christmas spending have arrived, and resolutions eagerly made on January 1st have already been broken. Apparently, many of us feel like failures and our hope for a “new beginning” is gone.
Although I have shared previously that I don’t make resolutions due to the arrival of the first day of a new year, nevertheless, on January 17th, I wrote about a Babystep Challenge. This was a promise, plan, commitment of sorts. That was just over a week ago and, today, I want to sort of “debrief”…maybe you will be able to identify. In fact, maybe you made your own “Babystep Challenge” commitment of sorts. Let’s evaluate how we have done.
My over-arching desire in having some sort of “commitment” to reach for was to see if I could do so without becoming obsessive, prideful or self-condemning based on “how I was doing.” Hippity skippity! I think that has actually happened! I am aware of my need to be mindful of my tendency, but so far so good. I have a bit more of a “normal” mindset than in the past when I might have created a graph or chart, pinned it to the wall, and marked each meal where I left two bites on my plate or in my dish. I might have then given myself a grade for the day and even averaged out the week and circled it on a calendar or some such obsessive nonsense. Then, depending on if it was an A, B, C or F, I might have celebrated or spent appropriate time in self-abasement. :-/
Boy, I have come so far by the grace of God! No charts have been created, no color coding or grade averaging! WHOO HOO! And better still, no self-flagellation! YAY!
So how did I do? I did very well with my babystep commitment (that of leaving food on my plate each time) on some days and “blew it” at other times.
In a nutshell, I have come away from the week with a thought: When I “blow it,” when I don’t keep my commitment–whatever it is–be it one “little slip” or six months worth of “slips,” so what? I mean, does the world stop? Do people die? Am I ruined forever? Am I before God, now suddenly having rendered the provision for my sin on the cross impotent?
NO.
…neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~ Romans 8:39
No matter how great my error, rebellion, “slipping” from my commitment, I can observe and correct, confess and repent, shake the dust off my feet, allow the Lord to restore me and move forward again. In fact, God seems to indicate I can do this as if I never messed up. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed my sin from me!
When I “flake” or rebel against what God has called me to do, when even a babystep was too great a leap, the carnage left in my wake need not be permanent!
Whoa…really? LOL! For me, this almost seems revolutionary and profound! But it is true!
This past week, I discovered that I would literally somehow “forget” my commitment only when the food I was eating was sweet…a dessert of some sort. Interesting thing to discover! As I have prayed about this, I realize that sweet foods still have quite a hold on me and I am, in fact, greedy about them!
My Babystep Challenge for this week will be to continue to leave a bit of each kind of food I have on my plate or in my bowl or in my hand, uneaten. I will be especially mindful of “favorite” foods like brownies or ice cream.
This verse says it so clearly. Food isn’t for filling all the empty spaces in my heart.
It isn’t for numbing out when I can’t handle the emotions I feel.
It isn’t to fill boredom.
It isn’t for celebrating.
Food IS for my stomach…for my physical body. Period.
So why do I insist on using food, which God intended for His specific purpose, for my own purposes–those which run counter to His will? Is it any wonder that doing so runs me into a bunch of trouble?
Today, when I am tempted to use food for something other than my stomach, my physical body, I will choose to look at what is really going on, what is really needed, and invite God to show me His solution–what has He ordained to fill the need for this particular emotion, thought, challenge, experience.
Thank you, Lord, that you have provided food for a purpose–for nourishing my body. Thank you, too, that you have a million other things that you offer to me to meet the million other “needs” I have in my life. Help me to use food the way you intend and when something is going on that I am tempted to feed with food, help me to turn to you and invite you to bring yourprovision to that situation. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
If I want to break free from unhealthy eating habits, I have to be willing to prayerfully evaluate what place my emotions have in my choice to eat. I can be as practical as anything, but when it gets down to it, there are times when my compulsion or drive to eat something is like a run-away train–there is no stopping it. No promise to pray to overcome temptation or to look for a way out, to sing praise songs, to journal seems to keep the inevitable from happening. In times like those, I want the craziness more than I want to be sane…what is that about? Why can all my godly and good intentions be overcome in a moment of intensity? What place does my anger (or other emotions) have in driving my eating?
I don’t really know the answer to this yet. I know that God has graciously exposed moments when my thinking is heading in the direction of *becoming* that run-away train…before it happens. I continue to pray in my moments when I *want* that–that I will see it before it happens so I can derail it…take my thoughts captive rather than be taken captive by my thoughts.
I have seen that much of the “inexplicable” agitation or angry feelings that seem attached to more compulsive eating are often due to unresolved issues in my life. If I haven’t forgiven my husband for a careless remark he made on vacation, then when he does something that triggers that memory, I tend to give him “what for”…or turn the equivalent amount of anger inward…and allow it to drive me to eat. If I don’t take these things to the Lord and work to forgive and release my wounds, unmet needs, and anger, it is almost surely going to bite me in the rear…
I must sit with the Lord and ask him to search my heart and know me. Show me if there is anything in me that needs to be brought out into the light. A survey like this daily is helpful. It keeps that unresolved anger at bay and compulsive eating because of it at a minimum.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
