Eat.

I think before I say or present anything on this forum, I need to address the three foundations for this blog and why I've chosen them. The first is easy because it's something we all do every day, hopefully, even if we don't all pray or if we don't all exercise. 

How much we eat, what we eat and how often we eat look different for everyone, so I'm not going to pretend I have the handle on the Gospel of Food. Personally, I try to find a balance between the saying, Don't live to eat, eat to live, and my Grannie's wisdom, When you've lost everything else, the last truly good thing you have in this life is good food. The point is: we ALL need to eat. One of the purposes of this blog is to help us to appreciate the little things in life as well as address the major needs sometimes taken too seriously or not seriously enough. Food is all of those. As something that directly affects our bodies and how they work, food is also something that can determine how we feel, especially in a world obsessed with size. I could feed you (pun totally intended) all sorts of inspirational quotes about beauty's relationship with carbohydrates and I could be as flippant as a chocoholic or as serious as an eating disorder. Bottom line: if food was not so important, people wouldn't have so much to say about it. So here's my two cents worth.

I really believe when we get pleasure from eating, we're touching on something divine. Especially chocolate. There's a reason heaven is described as a feast, you guys. Food and hunger isn't just a human thing, it's a God thing. Let me show you. I've been working through the book of Mark with a friend of mine and I'm discovering that like typical teenage boys, the disciples of Jesus got hung up on 3 major themes: sleeping, food and who was their coach's favorite player. I hope by the end of this post, you'll appreciate how accommodating the Gospel, and the Jewish diet in general, is to the bread-lover in all of us. In chapter 6, Jesus feeds 5,000 people with bread and fish and in chapter 8, He feeds another 4,000. Immediately after that second carb-fest, Jesus makes a metaphor about the yeast (corruption) of the Pharisees and King Harod, but the disciples fixate on the 'bread' reference and, once again, start talking about food. I bet I would have done the same. I'm also pretty sure that whenever the disciples weren't making a point about how hungry they were, they were discussing who forgot to bring lunch; at least, that's the vibe we get from 8:16. The point is, food is a major theme all across the Gospels and not just in the 'bread of life' kind of way. The disciples are usually hungry and Jesus spends most of His 3-year ministry eating with people. In fact, the last thing He does with all of His disciples before He goes to the cross is have a meal with them. Praise God that my Savior gets food. As the creator of the concept of hunger, He gets it when I look at a piece of my Grandma's German Chocolate Cake and desire nothing more than a fork and some privacy. Now that's a God I can relate with.

My Daddy  taught me 'everything in moderation'. That wasn't just good food advice, it was good life advice. So as we work our way through Eat. Pray. Plank and what that looks like for each of us, I want the EAT portion to lay some ground rules: always give yourself (especially your body) what it needs AND go easy on yourself...when it comes to the scale AND your plate. This is not a recipe blog and it's definitely not Fitbit.  This is a place for us to look at our bodies and realize they are important, they are beautiful and what they look like is not nearly as important as how we treat them. Both pale in comparison to the significance of the One who gave them to us. 

But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? ~ Romans 9:20-21