You Are What You Eat

Centuries ago when we had cable, my wife and I occasionally watched a show on BBC America called You Are What You Eat. The premise was simple. A mean, little British woman (a nutritionist) would, at the behest of a friend or spouse, go try and fix a fat person. Her way is to mock and chide them for weeks, trying to get them to change their eating behavior (or, in the UK, behaviour). (Oddly, and awesomely, she talks a lot about the quality of their poo.)

Her philosophy: Unless you stop eating crap, your body will continue to want to eat crap. That is, despite the risk and consequences, your body will enjoy those things you eat regularly and dislike (violently) the things that will actually make you healthy. So this nutritionist makes them do a 180. They are allowed only to eat healthy things like tofu, salad and mung beans. And what is really cool is that the people eventually begin to like the food they originally abhorred. By eating good things and avoiding bad things, their tastes change.

Christians are What They Eat

I like this idea, especially when it comes to the Christian life. The more we consume crap the less we will like what is good. Though this could apply to a lot of things, I am thinking mainly of criticism. Our culture feeds off of it. We rate, review and critique everything. Everything. And Christians, for no good reason, aren't a lot different from the world. Out of profound insecurity and sinfulness, we criticize everything. The music, preaching and people at church, our work, friends and family, etc. Nothing is out of bounds. We do it behind people's backs, in front of them, in our hearts (mostly in our hearts). Of course this is sinful. But why do it? Why do we continue to gossip and criticise when we know that it is harmful to our health?

We must admit that there is momentary happiness when cutting people down. When you believe that you are better than someone else, you feed your ego. And that feels good. Good. Like eating cheese fries at Outback Steakhouse, or a 1lb hamburger at Fudrucker's, you go away feeling extremely satisfied. And so you keep on eating the same types of foods. You eat so much crap that everything else tastes like garbage in comparison. Christian virtues like love, grace, extreme sacrifice, and humility don't sound appealing anymore. And this only gets worse the more you binge.

Eating Crap Only Feels Good for a While

Interestingly, eating crap only makes us happy for a while. In fact, there are times when the satisfaction lasts only a few minutes. You usually leave a junk food meal feeling nasty and bloated. The same thing happens when you criticize and gossip. The euphoria of ego building lasts only for a while. Then you feel nasty and bloated. Well that, my friends, is the Holy Spirit trying to get you to change. You are fat and you need to purge yourself from those things that you have lived on for so long. Grace, love and humility probably won't taste as good for a while. But I promise you, they will eventually taste much better and, in the end, you won't die as a result of eating them. Paul says in 2 Timothy, "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart," (2:22). May you eat what is good.