Food & Writers

It's so easy to eat mindlessly while I'm sitting up here at my computer. That, and since I do my writing in a seated position - well, let's just say it's not always good to have ample amounts of time to eat and not move around.

And I also have ample reasons to look at this problem:-)

Everytime I feel God's tug to get me to eat better and be healthier it's not exactly something I greet with much enthusiasm. I feel just like Paul - "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." (Rom 7:18-19)

Later, he goes on to say "Who will recue me from this body of death?"

That about sums it up. It comes down to a lack of discipline, and not wanting to die to my own flesh. I know that in my head, but actually trying to do something about it - that's a different story. While God may want to bring discipline to one area of our lives, it really has a deeper effect on us because dying to ourselves helps us share in the sufferings of Christ in some small way.

I was at a retreat this weekend where they mentioned a quote by AW Tozer.

One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas, the sacred and the secular.

He goes on to (basically) say that when we are engaging in spiritual acts we feel good because we know we are pleasing God, but everything else (all the mundane things of living from laundry to lunch to scrubbing a bathroom) seems somehow a waste of time.

But using Christ as our example we learn that this is a misconception. Paul's exhortation to "do all things for the glory of God" is real - ALL things, not just what we consider to be spiritual.

In an effort to look at some things in my life, I fasted on Monday and pondered the whole sacred vs. the secular as I cleaned my house. I purposed to do it "unto God" and not look at it as simply another chore to be completed. And you know what, God spoke to me through the clutter and I learned that just like my house, I'm more worried about the general appearance than the details. As I dusted and removed the clutter, I saw that is exactly what God wants to do in my heart - that it was time to get some corners cleaned. It was amazing - and it felt like worship.

So while I don't want to confront the twin sisters of food and exercise, I sense that God is using the natural to work on something deeper in me.

More of You and less of me...literally.

Click to read AW Tozers amazing thoughts.