Good Nutrition

Good Nutrition            

               Happy, happy spring!  How delightful to welcome spring—especially this year.  The advent of spring brings Easter, preceded by Lent.

For many of us the Gospel reading on the first Sunday of each Lent is Satan’s tempting Jesus in the desert with power, pleasure and wealth.

            When Satan came to Jesus, Jesus hadn’t eaten for 40 days.  Surely, he was hungry, but when Satan said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread,” Jesus answered, “Man [or woman] does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:3-4, New American).

            We can analyze Jesus’ response in many ways, and, through the years, I’m sure it has been, but today let’s look at it in a couple of ways.

            God created us as triune persons—physical, mental and spiritual.  To be healthy, we need to care for all aspects of our person.  To keep the physical me healthy, I need to provide myself with more than bread (even though, I love bread), just as Jesus said.  Good nutrition is a complex process, and I’m not a nutritionist, but I suspect all of us who struggle with weight management know mega truths about nutrition—the number of servings we should eat daily of protein, dairy, fruits and vegetables, fiber…ad nausea.

            But that verse also reminds me that I need to keep the spiritual side of me healthy.  My body needs more than bread to be healthy, and the whole me needs more than food to be healthy.  I need God; my spirit also needs to be fed. 

            So each year when I hear that verse read, one of my first thoughts is this:  No, I don’t live on bread alone.  I need God’s love to live.

            So maybe when I am tempted to overeat, I can feed myself differently—with prayer, reading spiritual material, or just sitting quietly with God, soaking up the Holy One’s love.

                                                                                                                                    Sharon Witty