A New Diet

 

[Jesus said] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:25-27 ESV).

 

Last week I had a two-year appointment with my cardiologist. He was responsible for finding the blockages in two of my arteries and inserting the stents to open them up thus rendering the possibility of a fatal cardiovascular event very small. In the days following the procedure he was very careful, and direct, in informing me I could no longer say that I was in a preventative state concerning heart disease. In fact, because the main artery also had about 60% blockage, I was now to be considered “high risk.” He went on to say that I needed to continue medications, exercise, and lose weight. The latter of those was the most difficult. After my “check-up” last week, he praised me for all my vital signs. My blood pressure was great; there was no sign of recurring A-Fib. But, I had gained a bit of my weight back over the last year. His words: “You’re too fat. That won’t do. Get back on your diet.” I thought, “I hate dieting. I like food.”

 

That brought me to our devotional today (even though it’s a week later – I had to get over my “mad”). Jesus teaches us to ask God for our daily food, not more, not less. In our culture today, though, we are often tempted to think more about food “whenever I want it” than the food we need to live one day at a time in our service for God. Overeating, “gluttony,” is the sin of inordinate desire, the insatiable desire to please our appetites. Banquets in ancient Rome put gluttony on display: after consuming all kinds of delicacies, guests would induce vomiting so they could eat more. But the rhythm of gorging and purging is unhealthy. A French proverb says, “A glutton digs his own grave with his teeth.”

 

The inordinate desire for food and drink, writes the novelist Peter De Vries, “is an emotional escape, a sign that something is eating us.” The ordinary desire for daily food is fed by a trust in God’s provisions, not by dependence on our own remedies. That’s easier said than done. When I talked about fasting yesterday I guess I was writing to myself more than anyone else. Stewardship of our daily bread is an intimate expression of our resurrection life with the Lord Jesus. Enjoy God’s daily gift of food, but don’t let it eat you.