Freedom

I used to think that freedom in Christ-- when it came to food-- meant that I could eat whatever I wanted.  In this process to get my body back in order, my doctor has also recommended a few very specific dietary changes to go with my supplements.  These include switching to a more whole foods diet, cutting sugar (as much as possible), cutting processed foods (completely, if possible), eating protein (eggs) with vegetables as breakfast, and reducing gluten and dairy intake.  For someone who grew up thinking that vegetables were mostly garnish on the plate, this is a completely new way of thinking.  I had patterns of eating that were largely carb-heavy-- breads, pastas, potatoes, etc.  A few weeks ago a friend emailed me in response to an email about this and said that she is praying, "that this will be an exercise in freedom for you in that you will feel the freedom to not choose what you crave but what you know is good for you."  Woah!  I had always claimed 1 Corinthians 8 as Biblical proof that we can eat whatever we want and not have dietary restrictions!  Is that the wrong way to look at the passage?  Here it is so you can read it again, too:  

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.  For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"),  yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.   But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.  But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.  Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.  For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols?  So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.  When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.  Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.  1 Corinthians 8:4-13

So what I'm learning and praying about now is that God would free me from my food addictions.  I hope that in eating this way I can be mastered by nothing-- not even food!-- and that I can use food instead as fuel for my body.  If that means completely revamping my diet, then so be it!  If that means cutting out the foods I think I want more than anything else, then God, I pray for the grace I need to get through those cravings!  

So the new verse I'm clinging to (as I still figure out 1 Cor 8!) is 1 Corinthians 6:12: "Everything is permissible for me"-- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-- but I will not be mastered by anything.

Now, just keep me away from those Timbits!  :)

-JLR