Never? No, Never!

 

Never?  No, Never!

 Just two weeks ago, we celebrated the resurrection of Christ.  Why did Jesus come to earth?  Why did Christ arise?  Why did God make us?  Of course, the answer to each question is Love, because we are loved--unconditionally.

 What’s your trigger food?  What sets up cravings in you so that you eat far more of that food than you need?  For me, it’s sweet, fatty foods.  Through the years I have eaten pounds of cookies, cake, brownies, pastries, and ice cream. I’ve eaten three or four slices of pizza at one sitting.  When the binge was done, and I laid my head on my pillow at night, I hated myself and vowed, “Tomorrow is going to be different.”  But tomorrow was never different.  I just went right back into eating my trigger foods and binging.

One night I came home after binging, sat on my couch, and sobbing, cried out to the Lord, “No more, Lord.  No more.  No more sweet, fatty foods.”

 Since that night I have turned down desserts, pizza, and pastries.  Oh, I am not a monk.  I have to have dessert.  I make my own pudding; I eat yogurt with fruit and nuts, I make a good dessert with sweet potato, honey and cinnamon.  In the summertime, every once in a while, I get a soft ice cream cone--and eat it very slowly.

What has made the difference?  Grace I know.  But that’s not the main idea of this blog post.

Finally, I realize even when I was in the midst of daily overeating and binges, God loved me.  I had grown up hearing that I needed to earn God’s love.  It has taken me a long time to accept the opposite--God loves me, plain and simple.  Nothing can steal the Divine One’s love from me or you, and we don’t have to earn it.  Paul tells us “…in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, not present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39 Anselm Academic Study Bible).

That concerns me about us overeaters.  Too many of us think God stops loving us if/when we overeat.  Nope, nada, doesn’t happen--not ever.  God loves us--always.  Let’s focus on that truth.

 

                                                                                                                                     Sharon Witty