Saturday, August 25, 2012

"Eat well"

It must be the Lord.  I ran into a dear friend at the grocery store this morning.  We swapped stories about health struggles.  It turns out that (a) we both walk with them in our families daily; and (b) we both approach them via a mixture of western medicine & alternative approaches.  I was deeply encouraged to find another person who understands what my family has been going through in a real, true way.

Then, I happened over to a blog I've started following and read this:

http://willingcook.com/welcoming-kelly-of-the-nourishing-home/

Her story could be my own, except that I'm still trying to implement many of the changes she's already made.  I'm so grateful for this blogging friend.  She spurs me on.

So, in two ways today I am reminded of what the Lord said to me when I was at my lowest and conventional medicine was not helping.  

Quite simply, He said: "eat well."

I am reminded that I must keep seeking, keep experimenting, keep refining my approach.

I am reminded how the most complicated of unknown places often has the most simple way of becoming clear.  

The "real food" or "whole food" or "clean" eating movement is, ultimately, about decluttering.  It's about ending up where we should have started from all along.  It's about cleaning out the pantry of our motives - all those impetuses that move us forward - until what's left is pure, white, clean.  It's about laying down what we want or crave and picking up what we need.  It's about letting go of entitlement and instead choosing holy desire, which is where real fulfillment takes place.  

Once we've changed what drives us we'll change what we want.  And then, we can begin filling up those pantry shelves with real, life-sustaining food that will lead us to honor God not only with our lips, but with our bodies as well.

This is easier said than done.  It is, most definitely, a process.  A year and a half after that word - "eat well" - I'm not even close to being fully obedient.

But I'm trying.  I'm engaging.  And I'm so, so thankful He has called me here.

My prayer for you is that you don't have to face a health crisis to start making changes that will move you toward greater health.  My prayer for you is that you will experience conviction without crisis.  My prayer for you is for wholeness and integration in all areas of your life - the physical and metaphysical.

No matter how you get there, my prayer is that you - and we, all of us in this nation, actually - do get there...that we arrive at the conclusion that we cannot keep poisoning ourselves with food that is actually non-food...that we will, as a nation, shift toward local, sustainable, whole, not because it's trendy but because it's Godly.

That we will collectively choose what we actually hunger for and make a daily effort to "eat well."

Monday, August 6, 2012

My Only Hope

We suddenly find ourselves in a precarious situation in my household.  There has been surprising news, an unexpected turn of events, and disappointment.  The details are irrelevant.  The salient point can be found in the present.  We are, in a word, unstable.

As I lamented our instability last week, whining a bit to the Lord, I did what I always do when things seem to go awry: I pulled out my journal and my Bible.  "I have nowhere to go but to you," I thought. 

"But now, Lord, what do I look for?  My hope is in you."  Psalm 39:7

As I went to Him, He reminded me that He had led me to this verse several times over the last few weeks.  The Word has certainly come alive in me this week; as plans are cut short and the future seems so uncertain, I can cling to this verse, this truth.

During the previous season of unemployment, an eight month period which ended in May, one lesson kept coming up over and over again.  "Live in the present."  It was as if God was waiting for us to finally get it, to truly live out Matthew 6:25-34.  I don't know if that stands up theologically, but I can tell you with certainty that was our experience.  He moved us from a place of worry about the future to peace in the present.  Our circumstances did not change until our understanding did, our perception, our belief.

And today?  After a week where our present has been shaken, yet again?  There is still peace (praise God!) because I look for Him, and find Him, in the present.  "I have nowhere to go but you" - my current mantra - can be rephrased as:

"There is absolutely nothing I can do about my situation."

- or - 

"I am powerless but you are powerful."

- or -

"You are my only hope."

Linking up with Soli Deo Gloria tonight.  There's an exciting giveaway at Jen's place - be sure to check it out!