At some point in my life, I decided I needed to give some attention
to what I was eating. The college and early-20s lifestyle of eating
mainly fast food, processed food, lots of sweets (I have a sweet tooth),
and drinking lots of soda just wasn't working for me. Or my
waistline. Diets come and go (and the pounds go and come with and
without them), so I knew it had to be a lifestyle change. So I started
learning to eat more healthy and started learning how to cook.
There
are so many, many differing ideas about diet and eating habit. There's
the super-healthy fitness crowd that tries to eat "clean", lean diets
of high protein and fruits and veggies, but low carbs, fat, and sugar.
There's the vegetarian group, the pescatarian (vegetarian + fish) group,
and the vegan group. There's the revolving diet group, and then
there's the group that's been blessed enough to never have to think
about it. There's banting, paleo, gluten free, Atkins, Isagenics, Juice
Plus, diet pills, and I don't even know what else. And some have
landed in the camp of: Eat whatever, it's all from God, it can't make
you fat, and if it does you need to stand in faith that it won't harm
you and it's fine. (This goes along with the verse, "You will drink/eat
poison and it won't harm you.")
And there is probably
something that is true in all of these different things, otherwise they
wouldn't work for anyone at all. But there's always someone who swears by each of them.
I've
landed in the camp of: If God made it, it's probably safe to eat
(unless, you know, it's poisonous mushrooms in the back yard). Eating giving at least a little consideration to what I eat falls
into the realm of taking care of what God gave me. I want to make good
choices, but I don't want it to have a controlling factor in my life. I'm
free to eat anything, but I'm also free to say no to it all. Including
the ice cream I tend to over indulge in when traveling or after
moving...
Most of us do worry about what we eat.
Maybe not in the way that Jesus talked about it. That was a literal, "I
wonder if I'm going to eat tomorrow. What am I going to do? How can I
buy or find food for tomorrow??" We worry about how it's going to make
us fat. Or sick. Or somehow unhealthy. So if I pay attention to what
I eat, it's because I want to be a good steward of the body God has
given me, and I want it to last. If I had a car (incidentally, I don't
right now), I would take it in for regular oil changes, put gas in it at
appropriate times, clean it off to keep it in good working order.
That's what I want to do with my body.
When it comes to
taking care of our bodies, healthcare and dealing with sickness becomes a
major issue as well. And we see every ideology from, "It's all
doctors," to "God uses doctors" then "I only use what's natural" and all
the way to "I don't have to take anything ever because I have God who
will heal me." The theological intricacies are above my pay grade, but I
know God cares about my health, I know He doesn't want me to be sick,
and I know He can do anything and use anything for my healing. My only
job is to hear His voice and follow Him.
Before I
moved to Africa, I'd been sick about once in 6 years. I lived with
people who were sick every month, and in the 2 1/2 years in their house,
I didn't get sick once. My immune system was rocking it! I went to
South Africa. During those 7 weeks, almost everyone got sick but me.
And then I went to Mozambique. Most everyone had...bowel issues, but I
was fine. But by July I'd been eating mainly cheap pasta and rice with
little nutritional value, limited amounts of fruits, veg, and protein.
Just bread, pasta, rice, repeat. And Moz is dirty, and dusty, and the
dust blows everywhere so that you breathe it. You're around hundreds of
people in less-than-clean conditions. I started coughing. After a
week in Madagascar, I had literally the worse cold I'd ever had in my
life. It turned into full-on sinus infection, double ear infections,
and coughing up stuff that shouldn't come out of your lungs. My head
was a constant, pounding drum. The Hulk is green on the outside. I was
green on the inside. It was horrible. I even cried.
Normally
I try to avoid taking drugs. Not this time. I was trying to get a
hold of some good drugs to kill everything that was trying to kill me.
This head and chest infect of doom returned every 2-3 months as an
unwelcomed visitor that just wouldn't leave. I still had the mentality
of, "I do not get sick," which I'd lived in for 6 years. But my body
didn't care in the slightest about my mentality. Sickness didn't care
about my faith. It was angry. And it would be heard. Every. Single.
2-3. Months.
While amazing things were happening in
Africa, there was also a lot of stress and pressure around me, which can
take its toll on a person's health (did you know health issues are
often common place with missionaries?). A couple friends encouraged me
to take, and pushed, vitamins. I reluctantly started taking those silly
vitamins in January of this year. And I started getting more sleep.
In addition to eating a little bit better over the last year. And you
know what? This year, I've only been sick once for about a week. And
it wasn't that bad. The sinus infection of doom and destruction wasn't
able to sink it's nasty (really, really, super nasty!) claws into me. A
nursing friend of mine always says, "Aspirin retards the virus!" So
when I started feeling a little funny, I'd start taking an Aspirin every
day, up my vitamin C, and be fine. That's happened 3-4 times.
Woo-hoo!
Now, I'm still not a huge fan of drugs. But
you know, I'm not a huge fan of being sick 50% of the time either, and
I'll use the things God has made available to give my abused immune
system a boost until it's recovered again. I don't plan to be on the
vitamin and aspirin regimen forever. But right now I have the means to
purchase these things, God has made them available, and I'm thankful.
And I'll let myself enjoy some ice cream every now and then.
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