Summer of 7: Food Addition

This past March, Lee went on a trip to visit our dearest friends, the Reeds in Bolivia. Seeing that my TV-watching, laundry-folding, talk-to buddy was going to be gone for a while, I decided to read a book. A rare occurrence since having babies.) I had seen on Instagram about a book called "7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" by Jen Hatmaker. This book is a story of a woman who felt convicted by our Western lifestyle of excess. She was in the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia and had taken in refugees displaced from Hurricane Katrina. When she heard a little boy refer to them as "rich", she was taken back.

After she identified the excess, she decided to do a fast in one of the areas a month to see what God had to say about how she was choosing those things to fill her instead of what Scripture said about them. The areas chosen were:

Food

Clothing

Spending

Media

Waste

Possessions

Stress

Whew. I feel certain that all of us know that we have/do/want entirely too much of these things. 

While this book was rocking my world in the USA, I would email Lee excerpts from the book. One day, a certain passage had me sobbing during my lunch break on the same day that Lee was visiting a special needs orphanage in Bolivia. We decided that these issues had all taken a front seat in our lives while things like justice and mercy (You know, the things Jesus talked about all the time) had been something we thought of in a small fashion and glossed over. 

So, our Youth Adult Team (We call ourselves "The YAT pack") decided to study this book this summer with our middle school and high schoolers and our college kids. We teach on the item one week, choose how we will observe a fast from the given item, and do a service project around it for the week. 

I am going to share with you all a weekly account of how I/we (Lee unfortunately becomes an object lesson on the blog sometimes) did and what the Lord showed to us through the fast. (Dear students in my college Sunday School class: I know I shared this with you all during our time together. Forgive me.)

We just completed our first week: Food.

If you follow me on on Instagram or on Facebook, you KNOW my obsession with food. I love to cook it, watch it, and especially EAT IT! For our fast this week, I chose to give up sugar in all forms, meat, and all processed foods. (Lee added coffee. Seeing how I still have to nurse the baby sometimes at night, I chose to not hate anyone and kept my coffee flowing. Don't worry, I take it black.)

The week proved to be differently difficult than I anticipated. Generally, I cook with a "whole foods" mentality. (I don't buy pizza crust, I make it, etc) But I was surprised by the amount of sugar was in some of the things I ate. (Jif, why must you put sugar in my favorite peanut butter?!) 

I thought I would miss meat the most, but it turned out, I missed it the least of all of the things I gave up. Due to its absence, I experimented with foods we had never had before (Here's looking at you, eggplant. We love you.) While, my eggs felt naked without its bestie, bacon, it wasn't terribly painful.

Processed foods were things I swore I didn't eat much of. And while it's true, I don't, I still ate much more than I thought I did. I found myself wanting a filler of chips. Or on mornings when the kids wake up ready to roll and Mama isn't ready to roll, I would grab some Belvita crackers and eat them while feeding Brooks. "I'll just have a grilled cheese!" Until I read the package on American "Cheese" to find out it is a "Cheese-like product". Bleh. One day, I tried a salad recipe that was a complete bust. Few things frustrate me like having a recipe tank. Lee needed to get back to work and I was nearing HANGRY. I really just wanted to grab a bag of Cheetos and call it good. I'm not lying when I tell you that I was grouchy for the rest of the day. Proud moments. 

Sugar. Oh, my sweetest friend (see what I did there?). You have been with me through it all. You were so present with me that I didn't even notice you were everywhere. This darn stuff is in EVERYTHING! (No wonder I lost 3 lbs in a week by giving it up.) To say that I missed it is a complete understatement. I am embarrassed to say, that at certain times of the day, I literally felt lost without it. Lost. My worst times were afternoon rest time for the kids (aka, "when mommy watches "The Chew" and folds laundry), and when Lee and I watch DVR'ed shows together at night. ("Which do we want tonight? Ice cream? or Oreos and milk?) I tried to fill my cravings with a lot of fruit. It somewhat worked, but was obvious that I had quite a habit going that really needed kicked. Even when I thought I wasn't eating much sugar (I mean, I don't drink any cokes, take my coffee black, don't bake a ton...), I was still consuming an incredible amount of it. Out of the 3 fasts, this was my toughest and probably the one I will become the most conscious of.  

The Take Away

We live in a culture that chooses to fill our gas tanks with apple sauce and then get upset when the car isn't running the way it should. In the Bible study, we studied Levitical  laws that detail the "What to eat" and "what not to eat" that are so frequently dismissed by "We no longer live under the law" and fail to realize that things as prescribed by the Law was mostly to keep the people free from disease and plagues. Enter the New Testament and we dismiss everything from the Old Testament and count it all joy to do everything in moderation. However there lies the problem. We haven't been doing food in moderation. Our culture is one that has been so blessed that we have become entitled to having as much of it as possible. I cut ONE ingredient and felt as though my arm had been cut off.

(Mind you, an ingredient that has ZERO nutritional value and arguably does more damage to our bodies than any other ingredient in our foods.)

And while there are starving people all over the world, we live in a country starving ourselves. We don't recognize it, because we are also the country with the highest rate of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. But our bodies are starving from the nutrition that God created for us. For our bodies to function the best. To be good stewards of what we've been given. 

We are so careful to make loads of rules of what we do and don't do in the church building, built by men, that money can repair. We aren't as careful with our bodily temples, made by God, in His image that money can't repair. 

The Lord has used this chapter to really shake me up. I am just as guilty as the next to deny myself nothing and eat as I desire. I need my car to run, therefore I need to put oil in the engine (I have no idea if that's right; I'm a Spanish teacher, not a mechanic), gas in the tank, and run it occasionally for it to reach its best potential.

My college students shared stories of heartbreak as they cleaned our their refrigerators and threw away food that they never touched. Lee reflects often on a time when he was on a mission trip in India, when he was told "We can feed our entire nation out of your garbage cans." This week, my favorite substance, food, was called on the carpet and my toes are sore from being stepped on.

Now, to start to take care of that car.