Monday, March 31, 2014

Guilty Pleasures


 A couple of days ago, my manager noted that I am a "yo yo dieter." He wasn't accusing me of this, but rather he thought I had confessed to it...when I had done no such thing! However, with very little reflection I know: it's true.

Yo-Yo dieting (verb) - Weight cycling, commonly referred to as "yo-yo dieting," can be defined as repeated losses and regains of body weight. In a small cycle, weight changes by 5-10 pounds, while in larger cycles, weight can change by 50 pounds or more.

I think that describes what I do. I don't really have to explain in detail, because the blog has chronicled all of my diet issues:

It all started with a note on my lacking willpower in Diets, Legalism, and other such Nonsense. Then after my return from Bali, after flipping through photos, I realized I was busted and disgusted. So, I started dieting, and realized how impatient I was in Instant Gratification, which was immediately followed up with defeat by a cookie in Counting Calories. And there are others! Just last week (remember) I ate all the chocolate that I found in my desk. Sad.

I hate fruit in salad (it's wrong!) but this looks good
A couple of days ago, I brought a salad to work for lunch. I didn't want it. I wanted something else so badly. I was trying to understand: why do I hate the salad? The salad actually was very good. But I didn't know that because I spent five minutes convincing myself that it would be gross in order to justify leaving my office to find "better" food. Other health food? Nah.

I would like to say I did NOT cheat on my diet. I ate the salad. And it was good. I enjoyed it. But if I had gone off-diet, I would have comforted myself by calling the departure from my plan: a guilty pleasure. 

Guilty pleasure (noun) - something pleasurable that induces a usually minor feeling of guilt. 

With the diet...this is no big deal. But, I fear that sometimes, I brush off tons of actual sins as guilty pleasures with a focus on the minor feelings of guilt. There always seems to be some form of justification: "I was sad," "I was really angry that day," "I just felt like I had to do something" and our friends stand around and they nod and they pat us on the back and tell us that everything will be okay. And it will! You will be okay. The guilty pleasure sins will not send you to hell, because...you have grace.  But in the same way that the dieter who is always cheating can never reach their desired goal, so the Christian who does not practice self-control (and other stuff) cannot reach their full measure of effectiveness. 

Will I die if I eat a carb? Nope. Will you go to hell for guilty pleasuring? Nope. The issue here isn't life or death. It's effectiveness. Faith gained you life. But what makes you effective?

An angry carb. Ha!
 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness...He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 
- 2 Peter 1:1-5

You already have the salad. It's there, in the refrigerator. The way of escape from the corruption of Panera cookies (which is what I wanted) has already been made. Likewise, we have received this faith that has allowed us to no longer be slaves to sin and guilty pleasures. God has made it possible for us to escape that. 
 
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 
- 2 Peter 1:6-9

But the salad being there is no guarantee that I will actually eat it. I could only eat the salad by adding self-control to its existence. Likewise, our faith alone is no guarantee that we'll be "lights" in this world. Faith alone is no guarantee that you're growing and developing as a Christian. So we have to add to our faith moral excellence (haven't we fallen down on this one?), knowledge (read your Bible lately?), self-control, perseverance (keep practicing that self-control), godliness, brotherly kindness (I suck at that one), and finally love. 

The scripture says these will be make you useful and productive. The reason why we're sometimes useless and unproductive is because we're so short-sighted. We only see our immediate needs and desires. We forget where God has brought us from, and we can't see to where He is trying to lead us. We fall into guilty pleasures and think: no big deal.

I want to live in the back of this truck
I thought that last verse about forgetting was deep, because it really ties in to the yo-yo dieting! Once I've lost weight, I forget how busted and disgusted I was...and I eat all the pie. In the world. I forget the former consequences of pie (at 3 am with vanilla bean ice cream) and think: no big deal.

Food for thought...pun!

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