Appetites and Masters

The blessing and curse of having a rather *ahem* transparent blog is that my changes, foibles and whoopsy daisies are out there for all to see. But hey, that’s my choice, right? And what’s the point of doing this thing together if not for learning from every success and failure?

So we recently had an exciting (for me) change in our household that totally rocked my Simple Diet and Food Stamp Challenge habits. You see for almost 20 years I’ve struggled with my skin. It is the common thread that’s been with me from 13 to almost 31. Ugh. I’ve had it all from little blemishes here and there to horrible cystic acne in high school that brought me to tears.  I’ve run the gamut of philosophies on it from thinking that it was God’s judgment on me for being vain, to thinking that it was just my lot in life, to–in the past year–listening to some dear friends and actually trying to find solutions.  But nothing worked. And before you start listing off things, “Did you try such-and-such face wash…?”  Yes, I did. All of it. 20 years of trying.

So finally a couple weeks ago I read an article and knew it was right on. It was one of those “aha!” moments when everything becomes clear.  The gist of it: The source of acne was carbs. Ugh. Sugar and grains.  You see for all my health-consciousness and frugality we were eating lots (and lots and lots) of whole grains, mostly organic and all cooked from scratch, but still tons of carbs. It never occurred to me that living a virtually meat-free diet most of my adult life could have contributed to the mess on my face. I’ve always been fit and have lots of energy and feel great so I never dreamed something was askew with my diet, but of course it makes sense now–I wasn’t healthy on my face!

So I jumped off a cliff and completely quit eating all sugar and grains.  And I kid you not, it was almost overnight that my skin radically changed. It’s been a week and a half now and it is so crazy.  The average joe might not be able to tell yet because I still have a lot of scarring from before, but it has been absolutely clear since stopping sugar and grains.

I’m convinced. Is this the most important thing in the world? No. But now that I’m researching more and more it’s amazing to see how many health issues are tied to sugar and overuse of grains, especially wheat. And when you consider that I was a bread-baker extraordinaire with a sweet tooth to boot, no wonder there were issues.

Here’s the coolest thing. Not trying to overspiritualize this, but this morning in church my pastor was talking about how when we feed our appetites we don’t actually diminish them we enlarge them. Our appetites grow based on what we feed them. For 30 years I’ve fed my physical appetite bread and sugar (because, let’s face it, it gives us a quick and easy rush and fills our tummies for pennies!) and no wonder that’s what I craved.  And I can’t lie, the first 3 days without any sugar or grains (I didn’t even have fruit) were so hard. I can only imagine how hard it is to quit smoking or drinking or come off a drug addiction.  A sugar and carb addiction is serious business! But afterwards there was this crazy freedom feeling, this feeling like that of 1 Corinthians 6:12 when Paul says,

“”Everything is permissible for me”–but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”–but I will not be mastered by anything.

I will not be mastered by anything. Think about that for a second. I will not be mastered. There will always be something that wants to master us. Whether it be our physical appetites or our appetite for physical comfort or control or praise or status or whatever. And while all things are permissible, not everything is beneficial. And for sure things are not beneficial when they begin to be our master.

We were created for ONE master and One only.

Anything that we think we cannot live without is threatening to become our master.  Certainly not everyone needs to quit eating sugar and grains (maybe sugar!), for some they are perfectly fine. But it does make me wonder how much of today’s disease and sorrow stems from our being mastered by something other than God. Our smoking, our drinking, our overeating, our control, our anger, our manipulation, our moodiness, our anxiety.  Anything that we run to, that we escape to, that we bow down to to make us feel ok–all those things are slowly but surely rising up to become masters over us. Little gods. Idols.

How do we know if we’re serving another master?

The fruit.

The fruit of my “master” if you will was some disease on my face. But what other kinds of dis-ease are present in our lives? The fruit of serving other masters will always be sorrow, anxiety, unrest.

Every appetite we feed will grow.

When we sow to the flesh, we reap to the flesh. When we feed our flesh, we reap more flesh. When we feed the appetites of our spirit, we develop a greater and greater appetite for God. For His love, His presence, His will.

And the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

We’re always feeding some appetite and we’re always serving someone. Which appetite will we feed and which will we starve? And to whom will we choose to bow?

That’s what I’m asking myself today. Thanks for reading along.