2012 has arrived, and people across the country are making resolutions—to lose weight, exercise more, stick to a budget, restore a relationship, or any other number of concerns. As I sit here in a café, sipping coffee, and writing this article, I too am reflecting on this past year’s highlights (a two-week mission trip to Brazil) and, well, not so high moments (not wanting to share my pictures because of weight gain). In my adulthood, I’ve had a great love for physical fitness alongside a great love for cooking, baking, and eating good food. Can any of you relate?
Acknowledging the Past
There are few things more satisfying to me than the post-workout buzz. Physically, it just plain feels good to move those muscles and get my heart rate pumping as the elliptical indicates a rise from the “weight loss zone” to the “cardio zone”. The additional side effects are pretty dang good too. When I’m in a regular exercise routine, I like the way I look, get more restful sleep, have energy for work both inside and outside of the home, am more spiritually disciplined, and find myself happier and more confident.
Physical fitness began early in my life and has served me well over the years. Throughout my childhood, I took ten years of dance lessons, rode my bicycle all over town, tried a bunch of sports, and finally settled on and played varsity tennis in high school. In college, I needed an outlet for physical activity to decrease stress, so I squeezed in time to occasionally run on a treadmill in my dorm and walk, instead of drive, to my part-time job. I didn’t get as much exercise in as I wanted to, and gained more than the “freshman 15,” but it wasn’t too bad. I vowed to get back into shape when I graduated, and I did within that first year of moving back to my hometown. As an adult, I’ve had (and put to good use) a gym membership, I participate in fun runs on occasion, and I frequently get up early to work out. In certain seasons of life I’ve been more disciplined than others, which causes my weight to yo-yo, but physical fitness is an important value and a near constant in my life.
That being said, I’ve also told you about my love affair with food. I like breakfast, I like lunch, I like snacks, I like dinner, and I like dessert. I also enjoy trying new recipes, reading food blogs, and pulling out my Kitchen Aid stand mixer to bake delicious treats in my “down time.” I take great pleasure in making meals, planning food for parties, entertaining in my home, and practicing hospitality in a variety of ways. Food is often attached to get-togethers, and that is fine. But, I’ve also noticed a dark side to my enjoyment of food. I have a hard time saying “no” to something I want. The Lay’s potato chip slogan taunts “Betcha can’t eat just one” … and I can’t. I can’t eat just one cookie, I want three. I can’t stop at one portion of mashed potatoes, I want another heaping spoonful. And I can eat my way through a pint of ice cream in two sittings rather than four—the serving size indicated on the carton.
Recognizing the Present
Here’s my confession: Over this past year, my love for physical fitness and food gave me two opposite end results. I completed a half-marathon with my dad and I gained 10 pounds (which, by the way, is in addition to the 10 pounds I gained in 2010 and the 10 pounds I gained in 2009). Yes, in the past three years, this exercise-loving, small-boned, thin-as-a-kid girl has gained 30 pounds. I’m at the heaviest weight of my life and I want my current weight to be the heaviest I’ll ever weigh. Sure I can celebrate doing a half-marathon but I can’t rest in a past success and ignore the present reality. I need something to change so that I can lose the excess weight, eat appropriate portion sizes, and finally get back into my favorite clothing. But, more than that, I need God to break a spiritual stronghold in my life so that I can move forward in freedom.
As I evaluated my physical health in 2011, and now resolve to make changes in 2012, I can’t help but recognize that the diet and exercise plans of the world are not going to permanently change my habits. As we all know, Americans spend billions of dollars on the diet industry every year. They don’t permanently work, or else we’d all be at a healthy weight and the industry would cease to exist. Exercise trends also come and go. They’re fun for a while, but the body gets bored with the same ol’ routine, and we’re on the hunt for something new to amp things up a notch. Sure, I could join Weight Watchers or buy the P90X DVDs, but I’ve decided to approach this stronghold from a way that will create permanent change in my life—submission to the Lord. I need to pray for Him to do a mighty work in renewing my mind (Romans 12:1). I need to be mindful of His presence on my trips to the grocery store, in my workouts at the gym, and when I pick up my fork and spoon at mealtime. I need to take seriously what His Word has to say about our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit, so that I can better steward my body. In other words, I don’t need more of the world’s influence about fitness and food. I need Jesus.
The past three weeks, I’ve been reading a couple of books in preparation for a Life Group that I’ll be teaching at my church this semester. One of them, in particular, has led me to the conclusion that this battle has to do with God’s spiritual refining process in my life more than anything else. I can’t just slap a bunch of rules on my life to lose the weight because I will fail. By not surrendering this area of my life, I’m giving the enemy a foothold when, as a Christian, I can have victory in Jesus. Isn’t that sad and sick and just plain ridiculous?
Gary Thomas, author of Every Body Matters, writes “The refinement process is as fierce as it is necessary. The goal is to be purified and refined for God’s service, just like silver … The reason I want to get in shape then, the reason I long for God’s church to get in shape, is not to impress anyone, not to make others feel inferior, not to demonstrate our own personal discipline and self-control. God forbid! On the contrary, it is to become, as Paul writes, “instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work”” (pp 14-15). Thomas then elaborates on our need to recognize our bodies as “instruments” rather than “ornaments” in the remainder of chapter one, and lays out other helpful messages about how our physical fitness impacts our spiritual growth throughout the book.
I like that. An ornament is all about appearance, but an instrument is created for a purpose. It has a specific use. In the same way, God has entrusted me with a physical body for a purpose and use, and I want my thoughts and actions to align with that plan. I want to serve Him and others with excellence until I take my final breath on this earth, and I don’t want my time here to be cut short because I cave, time and time again, to my own selfish desires. My exercise and eating habits are not just about me and they don’t just affect me either—they impact my relationships. In the same way that a chef uses the top ingredients, not the scraps, for a gourmet meal, I don’t want to love and serve God, my family, friends, church body, co-workers, and neighbors with the leftovers, but with the very best of me.
Welcoming the Future
God has a wonderful plan for each of our lives that includes hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). His divine power gives us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). He wants to be our First Love (Revelation 2:4), and for us to spend and be spent for souls (2 Corinthians 12:15). That’s not the kind of advice a personal trainer will tell you, or a diet company is going to sell you. It’s unchanging wisdom from the Most High God, who created our bodies and knows how they work better than any nutritionist, doctor, or fitness instructor on the planet. In this new year, I want my Christlikeness to grow, not my waistline. I’m ready to break free from this stronghold, see food and fitness the way God sees food and fitness, and allow Him to transform me from the inside out so that I can fully embrace the abundant life He has for me (John 10:10).
2012 is going to be a year for me to say sayonara and break up with this unhealthy love relationship with food before it starts to destroy my health. I’m done. I’m ready to fix my eyes on Jesus, and allow Him to shape my shape. If you also struggle with food or physical fitness in any way, will you join me in this glad surrender? Let’s prepare to reflect, a year from now, on 2012 as a year of victory, thanks be to God!
