Life or Death Diet.
March 9, 2012 § Leave a Comment
As was mentioned months past in our Family Overview post, one of our hopes this year was to grow spiritually. To be honest, we have no idea what that means or what that looks like. Yet we do know that spirituality is something that is integrated into every part of our life.
You’re either giving and reaping life in your spirituality. Or you’re spreading death to those around you.
Okay, okay, let’s not dichotomize spirituality or the entirety of our Beings. I don’t think that’s right, nor can it be done. But just think: the balance within you is either more light or greater in darkness in any given moment.
Whatever spiritual path I choose to take, my hope is to have more good coming out of me. I have a hard time with this on a daily basis. A struggle for humanity in general, I fight to be patient and have self-control. That is, to keep my temper.
The following is a poetic encouragement to “eat spiritual food” that is healthful and sweet to your soul. I hope you feel as encouraged as I did whilst re-reading it.
Every person has to be spiritually fed. eats spiritual food. Lives on a spiritual diet. Some eat food that is nutritious. That benefits their bodies as an adult. That balances their life. And feeds their mind, body, soul, and strength. Others and most eat food that poisons. Poisons their being. Intoxicates their life. Feeds and tears apart at the same time. It rips, shreds, destroys, kills, and steals. True life from them.
Their spiritual diet is death. They feast on darkness. Day-in and day-out they consume a variety of meals that bring lies. And they feast on foods that only make them too fat. Too skinny. Too proud. Too weak. Too insane. Too lifeless. Too confused. Too hurt. Too thirsty and/or hungry for the wrong thing. Not thirsty and/or hungry enough for the right.
For righteousness. Too damaged. Too filthy. Too infested. Too bland. Too imperfect. Too dirty. Too defiled. Too broken. Those who eat this food do not realize they’re doing so. That they are stuffing their faces with death. With decay. Each bite they take takes them closer to the grave. The Sheol.
Instead of monitoring their intake. They eat whatever they see. They replace water with wine all too often. Pleasure with delicacies they’re not prepared to take. And coping with just one more bite to push away the pain. They pretend that they are not the one choosing. Choosing to lift the fork to their mouths. Choosing to eat what is placed before them. Choosing to consume what will never satisfy.
And what is worse than those who only eat a diet of dissastisfaction and death are those who believe they are eating a satisfactory life. In their own minds they are consuming glory. When in reality, they’re consuming to gorge. They stuff their faces with the right foods only because they are considered to be right. Not because they crave them. They teach others to “eat nutritiously.”
Making their announcements known throughout the world. Yet they still binge and barf on their own demise. In their double life, they sample and sometimes stuff themselves with secret meals. Eaten behind closed doors. That evoke the entire purpose of their original diet. They rationalize one slip here and their to be natural, normal, and blame it on “part of being imperfect.”
They blend the good, healthy, life-giving, nutritious foods with a diet that suffocates. The blending that takes place only brings more lifelessness. Any energy that could come from the healthy is torn apart by the treachery of the cleverly disguised. Misguided as though they seem, these eaters consume what they believe will bring them long-lasting life. In reality, their reality tricks them into only seeing the nutritious and not the grotesque. Death will come upon them and they will blame it on the pressures of those around them. Rather than seeing the own fork they put to their mouth.
If they could only understand with their misguided hearts, life comes from an appetite of goodness. Not for what it is, but for where it takes you. What it does in you that you cannot see, but you can feel, touch, taste, and desire. Those who long for this diet of light find themselves deeply satisfied. And always wanting more. The life that it brings always. Always satisfies.
The choice to be made is the diet you choose. The spiritual undertaking of grub you decide to digest. Since it takes discipline, habitual discipline, to eat the diet that sheds light and brings vitality. It is one that needs to be chosen on a daily basis. The habit becomes devotion. The devotion becomes internal. Naturally satisfying. Causing the wrong foods to be distasteful. Leaving you in wanting. Dissatisfied in the fullest. And while immoral delicacies may be inappropriately appealing, they are not altogether unavoidable. The choice is then this: What will you choose to be spiritually fed: a life or death diet.
Originally posted: September 15, 2007
Photo: My sweet Audrey.
