Month: February 2020

Three years ago, I bought a FitBit. I diligently recorded every mouthful I ate on the FitBit app, and tracked steps and weight. I knew that I needed to get in shape. Doctors had told me in no uncertain terms that getting down to a healthy weight was the best thing I could do to reduce the chances of a recurrence of the cancer I had in 2015. 

My good intentions lasted a year. 

From time to time, I have picked up where I left off. My FitBit app shows me that over the past three years, despite some impressive ups and downs, my net weight loss amounts to 700 grams. 

Yes, this is yet another blog post about a middle-aged woman’s efforts to live a healthy lifestyle. If you choose to read it, please be assured that I am NOT sitting in judgement of anybody who, like me, struggles with weight. I am well aware that there are a myriad of reasons for why we find ourselves in these predicaments. I am preaching to one woman and one woman only … myself.

An inspiring book

I’m currently reading an inspiring book. I’m not quite ready to recommend it, having only read six of the 19 chapters, but it has got me thinking. This blog post isn’t a book review. Nor am I regurgitating the contents of the book. I’m simply giving credit where credit is due. The book that has stimulated my thinking is ‘Made to Crave’ by Lysa TerKeurst, published by Zondervan in 2010. 

The Bible, of course, is even more inspiring when it comes spurring us on to live well. It does not talk about dieting in the sense that we think of ‘diets’ today. Mind you, there were some pretty strict dietary laws given to ancient Jews, and there are plenty of instructions and examples given concerning both fasting and feasting. To my surprise, I realise now that there is also quite a bit written about people’s healthy … or unhealthy … relationships with food in the Bible. Chewing over this idea in a metaphorical sense could well be the missing ingredient in my ‘battle with the bulge’. 

A shocking verse

“They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved” Psalm 78:18 NIV.

What? I couldn’t believe that the author of ‘Made to Crave’ would take a random verse and apply it to weight loss efforts! 

Like a good Bible student, I went to the Good Book to examine the context. It turns out that the ancient Israelites did indeed put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. The context was an account of the Jewish desert wanderings. Yes, there was more to it than just the food issue. But the fact that they tested God by demanding the food they craved is indeed significant. 

So then, like an educated Bible student, I checked out the Hebrew word translated in that verse as ‘crave’. What I learnt literally made me gasp in astonishment. The Hebrew word translated ‘to crave’ is actually ‘nephesh’ –  the same word that is often translated as ‘soul’ or ‘living being’. When the word ‘nephesh’ is attached to the word for ‘food’, it has the sense of drawing life from that food, or ‘craving’ food. No wonder God was upset at the ancient Israelites’ demands for the food they craved and interpreted it as a willful test of his Lordship. Instead of drawing their identity and life from their God, they longed for tasty tucker.

Enemy tactics

The writer of the book ‘Made to Crave’ also makes a big deal of 1 John 2:15-16 – “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world” (NIV).

Again, I thought, “Pfft – over-spiritualising food choices, she is.”  And again, I dug into the Scriptures.  And yes, there is a lot more in 1 John than just deciding what we eat. And I very much doubt that the aged apostle John had dieting in mind when he penned those words. 

So why did John write this way? We actually know why with 100% clarity. Immediately before giving those early Christians these instructions, John set out his reasons for writing to them. He aimed to assure his readers that they belonged to God and had overcome the evil one (1 John 2:12-14).

That was then. This is now. The enemy’s tactics are the same. How does the Evil One try to lure us to himself and keep us from us ‘overcoming the world’? According to this passage, his tactics are three-pronged: (1) the lust of the flesh, (2) the lust of eyes and (3) the pride of life. 

An ancient strategy

Lysa TerKeurst, the writer of the book I’m reading, points out that this three-pronged approach is as ancient as the Garden of Eden. When Eve was considering whether or not to succumb to temptation, she  “… saw that the fruit of the tree was (1) good for food and (2) pleasing to the eye, and also (3) desirable for gaining wisdom….” (Genesis 3:6).   (I added in the numbers to correlate with the three tactics of the evil one, listed above, as outlined above and in 1 John 2:15-16.)  

Millenia later, Jesus, who was referred to as ‘the last Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15:45-48), would face the same three-pronged temptation. Would he (1) turn stones into bread (succumb to the lust of the flesh), (2) accept from Satan the kingdoms in all their splendour (succumb to the lust of the eyes), or (3) command angels to save him after throwing himself off the temple (succumb to the pride of life)?  

‘Lust of the flesh,’ the first tactic of the enemy, surely covers a lot more territory than just an unhealthy relationship with food. And yet food is clearly an issue, as exemplified by the temptations of both Eve and Jesus. And, let’s be honest here, craving unhealthy food is my temptation as well, rather than other more exotic forms of ‘lust of the flesh’. 

Clearly, the bottom line is that I need to crave a life-giving relationship with my Lord rather than with anything else … unhealthy food choices, in particular. But that is easier said than done. 

Reasons and excuses

I’m the first to recognise that weight issues can be physical.  For years, I blamed a ‘sluggish thyroid’ for being sleepy, slow and chubby.  (As an aside, my thyroid has picked up the pace now that gluten is out of my diet.) And then there are nutritional deficits that cause us to crave certain foods.  I once heard that chocolate contains magnesium, which is why we sometimes just HAVE to have chocolate. I see nothing wrong with a square of dark chocolate now and then. It’s consuming the whole bar that is the issue. 

Emotional factors are also an obvious culprit for us craving certain foods. I have always equated chocolate with reward, comfort and love. In fact, I was once a little girl who was small enough to climb through a ‘doggy door’ to help an elderly neighbour who had walked out without her keys. (I thought the neighbour was elderly at the time … she was probably not ancient at all, actually.) The kind lady rewarded me with a whole block of chocolate … I felt like a millionaire!

And then there is the frantic pace of life that many of us embrace these days. Who has time to shop and chop and cook and clean? Surely a successful modern woman has better things to do?  Yes, yes, I know … there are plenty of healthy options that are quick and easy, and yes, we don’t have to be quite so busy……

So how do we overcome the ‘lust of the flesh’ when it comes to making good food choices?

Overcoming

Managing our minds is surely a big part of the answer. Scripture is full of instructions and exhortations to meditate on God, his work and his Word. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are urged to think about what is good and noble and right. We are told to take every thought captive to Christ. So why don’t we just DO it? 

I don’t want to make excuses for my own failure to get in shape, but I honestly don’t think it is all our fault. We are not alone … we live in an age where obesity is more of a problem than ever in some parts of the world, including Australia. Supermarkets are full of artificial foods that have been engineered to last a long time and maximise profits. Our health hasn’t been the highest priority for those who make this stuff. Highly paid professionals design packaging and advertising which hooks us into buying products that we know full well aren’t good for us. Certain foods are said to be somewhat addictive, meaning that we keep buying more. I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift. 

The Evil One is alive and well, and is messing with God’s good creation. He tries to lure us away from God through ‘the ‘lust of the flesh’ (as well as ‘the lust of the eyes’ and ‘the pride of life’ … topics beyond the scope of this post). The temptation of ‘living to eat’ rather than ‘eating to live’ is only one of his tactics, but it is one I know well. 

Lent

I don’t usually do anything special for Lent.  The forty day period preceding Resurrection Sunday in the Christian calendar reminds us of the forty day period of Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness before overcoming Satan. It also harks back to the forty years of the ancient Jews’ wandering in the desert … those same people who had demanded food they craved and so tested the Lord. 

This year, however, I have a resolution. I do not plan to give up chocolate … after all, chocolate contains magnesium. I don’t plan to rule out festive foods either … even though Lent is the season for fasting rather than feasting. But I do plan to be a lot more mindful about what I eat and when. I’m talking about ‘managing my mind’. 

Throughout Lent, with God’s help, whenever I find myself craving an unhealthy food, I plan to consciously stop that train of thought and turn my attention to the one who is the giver of all good things. I want to draw my source of life from the origin of life itself. 

And then, after using the craving as a prompt for worship, I shall make a sensible choice about whether or not to enjoy a treat. 

I would say, ‘Watch this space’ to see whether or not I stick to my good intention, but it would be more apt to say, ‘Watch this waist’. 

Days 1 and 2 of Lent are over as I write these words. There are 38 more days to go. 

I hope that’s long enough to establish a healthy habit for life. 

“Guilty until proven innocent” … that is how we all felt on a short flight I took recently. We were guilty of nothing more than possibly … just maybe … incubating a virus. The likelihood that we were contagious was small given that this was just an ordinary flight from Thailand. We were far from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak 😷 . As we disembarked in Malaysia, we were met by fear-inspiring figures in white hazmat suits, aiming their ‘guns’ (some sort of thermometer) at each of us in turn before allowing us to proceed. Several middle-aged women sat forlornly in a roped off section nearby. 

Disclaimers

1.  What this blog post is NOT is an update on or explanation of the coronavirus situation. That I can’t do, first because the situation changes every day, and second, I am just an ordinary teacher / translator / writer and not qualified to comment. However, I can recommend a website which I often check these days:  

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

2.  I’m not exactly an impartial writer. Everything I hear about the fear and panic in China at the moment, I filter through the experiences I had in 2003. Back then, I lived in a SARS hotspot and developed a cough and low-grade fever. After ‘doing the right thing’ in terms of instructions given by authorities to the public, I went to be checked. The next thing I knew, I was quarantined in a SARS-dedicated hospital for observation and further investigations. It turned out that I didn’t have SARS, but a different type of atypical pneumonia. I’m very grateful that I never did develop SARS despite my proximity to so many who had it. I was in hospital for five l-o-n-g days.

3.  This time, however, I am writing from the comfort of my home in Melbourne.  I do not write as an ‘insider’ anymore. Last week, I returned home from Asia (NOT China). I confess that I have since taken my temperature on the odd occasion just to be reassured that I’m not harbouring any nasty germs. And I still sanitise my hands before mingling with other people for their sakes JUST in case.

Fear

People were fearful back in the time of SARS. Some said that the atmosphere then was like that of the days of the much earlier Japanese-Chinese war. The atmosphere in China these days sounds similar.

Fear and suspicion abound even down here in Melbourne. It is appropriate that people who have recently returned from China should be quarantined for a period, whatever their nationality, but it is not right that every person of Chinese heritage be treated with suspicion. And yes, that has happened in my neighbourhood. That story is not mine to tell. 

Fear of God, however, is something that Christians should embrace. Having a proper perspective of God during times like this puts scary situations into perspective. That is what gave Christians through the millennia courage to step into the streets at times when most people were fleeing to the countryside in attempts to evade illness.

The early church was known for its loving care of plague victims in the days of the Roman empire. Medieval monks served their communities in such times too. Christians today in Wuhan are showing this same confidence as they face this difficult situation. A pastor in Wuhan writes, “Christians are not only to suffer with the people of this city, but we have a responsibility to pray for those in this city who are fearful, and to bring to them the peace of Christ.*” 

Restrictions 

Christians can face whatever life throws at us with confidence in our identity as part of the eternal bride of Christ. Nothing can keep us from our true identity – not disease, not persecution and certainly not temporary restrictions on our liberties.

As Christians, we submit to authorities over us (Romans 13). China is uniquely placed to buy time for scientists to work out how to manage this virus before it spreads too far. Individual rights are readily relegated to the background when the community is threatened. Imagine trying to effectively impose home quarantine on the residents of Melbourne or Sydney for weeks on end – no sports, no outdoor play, and only one member of each household allowed out every few days to pick up groceries. That is what is happening in many parts of China.

Whether you agree with the restrictions on movement and requirements of masks or not, many cities in China are enforcing them. Individuals who have recently travelled anywhere at all are required to remain isolated from others. Authorities use drones with cameras and loudspeakers to identify and break up mahjong games and people doing morning exercises in groups, as well as to identify and warn people who are outside without masks.

Let me tell you about a few video clips I have seen online. A puzzled older lady looks up at a drone, which is hovering overhead and talking! (There is a ‘real person’ monitoring the cameras and speaking through the drone’s loud speakers from a control centre.) “Yes, Auntie, this is the drone talking to you. Go home now and wash your hands.” An older man, enjoying the sun on his flat roof, leaps to his feet when the drone zooms close and he suddenly hears, “Grandpa, go inside. Yes, you, the old man in pyjamas cracking seeds on the rooftop, go inside. You can crack seeds inside.” A small child is playing in a deserted village lane way. Again, a drone swoops low and announces, “Little friend, this is no time to be playing outside. Go home now. This is important. It is no joke. Run, little friend, run!”

A different attitude

Christians should have different attitudes to this crisis than the average atheist. We should be salt and light in our communities … communities that are often struck by fear. Social media and other forms of communications mean that community is alive and strong despite the lack of face-to-face interaction.

Yet social media can also whip up squalls of fear and panic. One example of this, sadly, was when rumours of the virus being carried by household pets led to the tragic and senseless dispatch of cats and dogs out the windows of tall buildings. I am NOT cutting and pasting footage I have seen online of that……

Churches are not meeting in many places in China these days and numbers are down even amongst members of some Chinese churches in Australia. While I am not criticising the precaution people are taking in not meeting together, I do hope and pray that Christians will support one another in standing firm and without fear during these crazy days. This is one instance when online support networks are especially helpful.

Fear and facts

Fear doesn’t always take notice of facts. Statistics suggest that coronavirus is not as deadly as the media make it out to be. Although a small percentage of sufferers will die from the virus, most will get over it and many only ever have a very mild case of it. There is a lot of uncertainty though because it’s so new still. They’re the facts.

It’s quite another matter, however, to live day in and day out in an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. In this environment, Christians can live fearlessly in (online) communities, confident that there is a God who offers hope for eternity. 

Martyrdom

Dr Li, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, is being hailed as a martyr for the people. He was the whistleblower of Wuhan who first drew attention to what he initially called another outbreak of SARS. That was back in December. He was reprimanded by authorities for unsettling the public at the time, though of course he has since been proved right. 

Dr Li didn’t have to care for fellow citizens of China who succumbed to this disease. He was an ophthalmologist, one of the safer medical professions, it would seem. He was one of the first to recognise the danger, giving him plenty of time to flee. A strong young man, statistically he should have stood a good chance of surviving even had he developed it. Perhaps he was exposed to a high concentration of the virus? Dr Li passed away from the disease last Friday, leaving a wife and two children, one as yet unborn. 

Was Dr Li a Christian? Some reports suggest that he was, though the popular media hasn’t picked up on that. I very much hope so. Regardless, he exemplified everything that Christians should be in a crisis like this – focused on others and fearless despite understanding the danger of caring for these patients better than most. He worked to bring health and wholeness to a system and community that was sick.

Our response

What is our response to this intense situation? 

First, let us “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). It takes real discipline to manage our minds when everyone around us is panicking. We need one another to stand firm. As in ages past, this attitude is what will set Christians apart.

Second, let us pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ in affected areas. Let’s pray not only for their physical well-being, but also their emotional health during the tense atmosphere in which they live. May they focus on Jesus and be salt and light in their communities. I referred earlier to a letter from a pastor in Wuhan. It is worth a prayerful read. The link is at the end of this blog post.

And finally, let us remind ourselves that our citizenship is not in this world but in God’s heavenly kingdom. As such, let us prayerfully work with him to see his kingdom come, his will done on this afflicted earth during these stressful days even as it is in heaven. 

Just the same, I am SO looking forward to this madness being over, and the sooner the better!

(PS: I am penning these thoughts half a world away from the epicentre of the virus. When difficulties next come my way, please interrupt my grumbling to remind me of these sentiments.)

* The translated letter from the pastor in Wuhan quoted above can be read in full here: https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/chinese-church-voices/wuhan-pastor-pray-with-us