April 07, 2011
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
I have a friend who has struggled with a weight problem all her life. A couple years ago Becky had a surgical procedure that restricts food intake and the last time I saw her she had dropped over 50 pounds. She looked great, but still had a few pounds to go to get to an ideal weight. Becky explained the surgery and the forever-regiment of eating small meals. Somewhat somber she said, “Knowing what I know now I could have done this without the surgery. At the time I didn’t think I could do it on my own, but now I have to do it on my own anyway...simply eat smaller portions.” Spiritually speaking believers are often in the same situation. Jesus said if our hand, foot or eye causes us to sin it would be better to cut them off, than to be thrown into hell (Matt 18:7-9). For some of us cutting of the offending body part actually sounds easier than making our lives obedient to Christ.
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Gail;
-----The import of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was that the substance of what we are is in the heart. He said a man speaks from the treasure of his heart, the good man brings forth good from his treasure, and the bad man bad. But now does He seem to be saying the evil in us rests elsewhere other than in the heart?
-----I think your friend’s experience perfectly illustrates what Jesus might have been meaning. Her problem was not that her stomach size was causing her to overeat. The attitudes of her heart caused her to overeat and her stomach size made it possible to overeat. The overeating was threatening enough to cause her to remove the opportunity by surgery. Now that the opportunity has been gone the overeating has also gone, and the attitudes of her heart have been realigned accordingly. She realizes a realignment would have been sufficient in the first place had there been some inner discipline to cause it. If there is inner discipline to realign the attitudes of our hearts causing us to sin, then there is no perilous need for trimming off otherwise useful body parts. If there is no inner discipline, then your only hope is to remove all opportunity of both good and bad.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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