by Heidi Bylsma | Feb 9, 2010 | Blog
“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. đ
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!
by Deanna Burris | Jan 25, 2016 | Blog
Today, I am going to share about something that has been weighing on my heart and is something difficult to admit. Because of recent reactions of mine to things going on in my life, I had to ask myself this painful question: âWhy do I still get upset when things in my life donât go my way, even though in my heart I know that I trust God to take care of me?â Where is the disconnect? God has proven Himself faithful, time and time again, yet I go into a tailspin when something goes wrong. I am afraid that even though I trust Him, there are still many areas in my life where I am trying to control things by my own power. I have proven time and time again that doing life by my own power never works.
I have always heard it said that the distance between the head and the heart is one of the longest. Sometimes the distance seems insurmountable when it comes from taking head knowledge and making it heart knowledge. When I think about my anxious feelings over the last few weeks, I realize in my heart, I totally trust God, but it is my head that is getting me into trouble. I am too strong minded. I think too long and too deeply about issues that I canât control. Wow, I didnât think it was possible, but my heart is good and itâs my head that needs help. This is why it is so important for me to find the time in my schedule for renewing my mind daily. Oh, how life gets in the wayâŠor should I say I allow life to get in the way. I make excusesâŠI have a new job, I didnât sleep well last night so I have to press the doze button, I have a family commitmentâŠI need toâŠwhatever. Whatever I allow to be in the way of my growth is an excuse, and those excuses cause my daily life to suffer.
I am a firm believer that we always have time for what is important to us. I have to ask myself if my boundaries are important to me or if I am going allow the âstuffâ going on in my life to âgiveâ me permission to break them. Are the changes that God has done in my heart and life worth the extra time it takes each day to renew my mind so that those changes stay and grow to even more miracles? It is very easy to fall back into previous reactions to life. It is easy to run back to food. It is easy to run back to losing myself in TV or books or quilting or anything else that takes me away. Itâs easy, but praise God, it is no longer comfortable. I want to guard the growth I have experienced this past year. I donât want to lose the gracious gifts I have received from my Loving Father. I want to praise Him for even the âstuffâ that could drive me back to the way I was before. I want to praise Him for the good, the bad and the ugly. I am grateful that God wants to grow my faith by letting me struggle. He loves and cares for me that much.
I have a favorite section of Scripture that has helped me in the past during times of frustration and fear. It is Habakkuk 3:17-19. It says, âThough the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Yahweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!â What this says to me is that even when things look and seem impossible to get through, even then, He is with me. No matter what I feel, see, perceive or experience that makes me believe that there is no way to move forward, the way is there and it is the road the Lord has laid out for me. I donât have to figure it out and I donât need to know what will happen tomorrow. I just have to put one foot in front of the other and follow Him.
Itâs too late to make a resolution, and those are only made to break. What I will commit to is making a daily effort to renewing my mind. I will not do this perfectly, but no more excuses. Will you join me? I believe God has great spiritual growth in store for those in Thin Within/Hunger Within this year. Letâs commit together to use the tools we have at hand to grow closer to our Lord who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. No matter what happens, letâs draw close to our Source of all that we need.
by Allison Mitchell | Jul 25, 2014 | Accountability, Blog, Inspiration, Renew Mind
âDo not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God,â Romans 12:2 (NKJV).
Romans 12:2 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I began truly meditating on it when I became a part of Thin Within as the workbooks have quite a bit of teaching on this process. Mind transformation is a total necessity if we are going to walk in victory concerning any area of our lives. Victory for me not only applies to my issues with food, but it also applies to other areas of my life.
Struggling with major insecurity for many years, I knew that as a minister, I could not go on in defeat and expect to help others to victory. I began to apply the mind transformation scripture to my insecurity which, by the way, contributed to much of my emotional eating.
One of the first steps in mind transformation is recognizing lies from the enemy of our souls. We can fall for his lies and not even realize that we are wearing a cloak of deceit. For example, I believed the lie that I was not good enough to work in my church, witness to people, or have successful relationships with people. The source of much of my insecurity was wounds I had suffered from relationships with men before I met my husband, people in the church who had lied about me, and friendships that had seemed to dissolve rather quickly. What was wrong with me? Why could I not maintain relationships?
I had to recognize the lie Satan had put into my mind that I was not good enough. Of course, I am far from being the perfect person, but if I am a child of God, I am made worthy through the blood of Jesus. Recognizing this truth took time because the lie was engraved in my mind for such a long period of time.
Once I recognized this lie, I could begin tearing it down through the power of the Holy Spirit.
âFor though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing EVERY THOUGHT (emphasis mine) into captivity to the obedience of Christ,â 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NKJV).
I had what I needed to tear down these lies, not in myself but through the Holy Spirit. I had to participate in my mind transformation. I say this because we often want God to just pour victory on us without our participation. He must have our cooperation in the process, or we will just as easily return to bondage.
Now that the lies were torn down, I did not need to stop at that point. My mind was now empty and something had to replace those thoughts or the lies would return with a vengeance. Luke 11:24-26 is proof of the need to fill the empty places. Jesus spoke of an unclean spirit leaving a man and returning to find the house empty so the unclean spirit brought more with him causing the man to be worse off than before.
I believe this is where we often miss the mark in mind transformation. We begin to recognize the lies and tear them down, but we fail to replace the thoughts with Godâs thoughts concerning the situation. 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells us that we have the mind of Christ so we can think his thoughts toward our situations. Philippians 4:8 describe the thoughts we should dwell upon.
Let me give you an example of the process. When I felt I was unworthy of ministry and relationships, I had to recognize the lie. Many lies will have some degree of truth which makes deception come into play. Without Christ, I am not a good person or a good friend, but with Christ, I can do all things. I have made a major step in the process, but I am not finished. I must realize that although I might have been at fault in previous relationships, those people had issues of their own so I could not be blamed for all of the failure.
Now that I had recognized a bit more truth, I needed to replace the lies. When replacing lies with truth, you must have scripture that applies to your situation. Some scriptures that I used in my battle were 2 Corinthians 5:21 concerning being the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. I read Ephesians 1 and 2 aloud concerning my spiritual blessings in Christ. I read Proverbs 18:24 claiming that I was able to show myself friendly. Philippians 4:13 about being able to do all things through Christ works in many situations. Aside from these, I found scriptures on the love of God. Recognizing His love made me able to have healthy relationships and a godly ministry. 
The process was not easy but had I not participated in my mind transformation journey, I would not be able to tell you about it. You have to participate and cooperate with God in your own mind transformation. He is more than willing to be your strength, but He will not force His will on you. Your willingness to work through tearing down the lies and replacing them with truth is a must.
What about you? How can you cooperate with God in your mind transformation? What lies need to be torn down? What truths need to replace these lies with truth?
by Christina Smith | Nov 15, 2013 | Blog
Would it be weird to tell you that this post was inspired by the movie Finding Nemo? When you have a two year old, inspiration comes from all sorts of random places.
In the movie, Nemo and his aquarium friends are trying to find ways to get Nemo out of the aquarium and into the ocean to find his father. One plan they come up with is throwing a rock into the filter to make it stop working. Their plan worked (the second time of trying) and the aquarium was soon filled with slimy, green goo. When I saw this part in the movie, I started thinking about the importance of having a filter in our mind, keeping out the junk and keeping in the pure.
Heidi has talked so much about the importance of renewing our minds in order to change the way we look at food, our bodies, dieting, etc. When we renew our minds, we are recognizing the lies and replacing those lies with truth. Thereâs another important part to this: filtering out the junk.
How is your filter functioning? Is there a rock stuck in it? Do you let nasty, disgusting things pass through?
What do you allow into your mind? What are you focusing on? What do you see with your eyes?
Are you standing guard over your mind?
Can you handle watching shows that encourage dieting and excessive exercise like The Biggest Loser? Can you flip through a copy of a fitness or dieting magazine at the doctorâs office waiting room? Or do those types of things stir up anxiety inside of your mind? Are you tempted to buy that new, bestselling dieting book, thinking, âThis could be the one!â?
What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to?
Is it time to get the rock out of the filter?
Â
Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
And your eyelids look right before you.
Ponder the path of your feet,
And let all your ways be established.
 Do not turn to the right or the left;
Remove your foot from evil. Â Proverbs 4:23-27
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I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. Psalm 101:3a
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Iâve been watching The Biggest Loser for years. Since the Lord has been doing so much in my life this year, I didnât want to hinder progress by watching a show that might tempt me to even think about dieting. So I prayed and asked Him if it would be alright if I watched it. He gave me peace to watch it. I wonât go into the reasons of why I like to watch the show (thatâs for another post), but this is just an example of something that could trip us up if we arenât carefully watching over our mind and heart.
The same sort of thing happened with a Prevention magazine in the waiting room at my chiropractorâs office. I used to find the articles interesting, but the last time I opened the pages I found myself appalled by the magazine. I had no peace reading it so I put it down immediately.
What about those innocent conversations with friends about the latest dieting fad? I used to be sucked into those conversations. I would ask questions. I would even buy the book. My curiosity was spiked. But now I do all I can to exit out of those conversations or avoid them altogether. God has brought me so far; Iâm not interested in allowing any of that back into my mind. It wasnât easy at first, but the more time I spent pouring Godâs truth into my mind, the more junk was cleaned out. I want my mindâs filter to dissolve every lie.
Itâs been really important for me to filter out anything that could trip me up because in the past I would take those kinds of things mentioned above and obsess. And when I say obsess, I mean OBSESS! I would buy the diet book and read (consume) it back to front, looking and searching for that final answer to help me lose weight, feel better, be healthy, etc. And then I would talk about it and think about it and talk about it and think about itâŠÂ And I would talk with my husband about it and he would get so tired of hearing me talk about food. Good thing he is a very patient man! It was like reading, watching, and talking about dieting was my âfixâ. In fact, the Lord clearly told me that one time. That was one of those âouchâ moments of truth. It was my drug. But praise God because He freed me from all of that! I chose to stop looking at those things and instead I looked to Him. He became my focus. I looked to His word for truth. He has been so faithful! He brought me out of that miry, gooey pit! Praise God!
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. Â Psalm 40:2
How about you?
How is your filter functioning? Does it need some maintenance? I want to encourage you to pour Godâs truth into your mind. Watch over the doors of your mind. Stand guard over every single thing you hear, see, and think about. If you are not sure about something, ask the Lord. He will clearly show you.
Written by: Christina
by Heidi Bylsma | Apr 22, 2021
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