My Reaction To Food?

 

What does pure joy look like?

How about this baby gif right here?

 

Adorable baby is so excited to get that ice cream cone. Once spotted in baby’s vicinity, it is all our little cherub can think about, see and grasp. Yep, cute little baby, probably still working on the motor skills thing, reaches for that ice cream come. Baby knows the reach is worth it. The eyes widen, the arms and fingers shake and our little one jumps up and down.

This ice cream come is GO-O-O-O-O-O-O-D!!!!

“... it was pleasant to the eyes...”

Genesis 3:6

When I saw this internet gem, I cracked an amused smile... a knowing smile. For, tiptoeing through the wonderfully dysfunctional candy land of disordered eating issues, this joyful cherub was me. All right, let’s get real, is me. Disordered eating, yes, is composed of the love in the love/hate relationship with food.

If we’re truly honest, those of us who are in that notorious candy land, this baby, at some level, is us. How could it NOT be us?

After all...

 Haven’t we been on diet after diet?

Haven’t we binged in secret?

Haven’t we felt the mother/father/lover/friend/enemy emanating from food?

Haven’t we our lists of “good” and “bad” foods?

Haven’t we felt the exhilaration of indulging in our designated comfort food?

Aren’t we in our happy place concerning the food of our dreams?

And, likewise, aren’t we in the hell of our nightmares, on any unique variation of consequence which comes from that food exhilaration?

It’s not quite as simple as that baby and the ice cream cone. But, c’mon, it’s there. This food thing has been there from the start.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes...”

Genesis 3:6

However, it’s not really about the food.

“Is not life more than food?”

Matthew 6:25

Strange, isn’t it? The food thing isn’t about the food? How could THAT be?

Well, the food thing is actually a heart thing. And heart things are tricky, at best...

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Jeremiah 17:9

And, when the vehicle of food, food, food, swerves at us, it can be difficult to see what is driving our craving, obsession or disorder with any particular morsel.

Often, what prompts food to be our “answer” is sheer, unadulterated PAIN.

 “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?”

Proverbs 18:14

Hence, the term, “self-medicating.” And so, we look to and look for our imperfect filling. Often we just don’t know we are doing this.

 “For what I am doing, I do not understand...”

Romans 7:15

We look for the short-term fix instead of dealing with the long game of our complicated, unresolved issues.

“Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.”

Judges 10:14

We’d rather eat our forbidden sugary, carb-y, salty, greasy or fast food-y solutions instead of dealing.

Because dealing involves going through the pain, instead of anesthetizing it. We want to avoid ourselves, our pain and the hard work which is attached.

Yet, nothing will improve without doing just that. Avoiding life doesn’t work. Proverbs 4:23 must come into play:

 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

And, by engaging in this reality, we don’t benefit merely on the dealt issue front. For, part of that keeping also extends beyond our reaction...to the Most High’s reaction.

And here, we stumble upon something mind blowing: His enthusiasm for us:

“The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

When I was a baby, it can be said my first addiction was to pacifiers. Mom recounted how I was downright inconsolable without my “binky.” And so, taking a family trip, I guess it was traumatizing when my mother forgot to pack my pacifier. Supposedly, I yelled, screamed and thrashed... until I somehow, moved on. Mom informed me how, at some point, I seemed soothed. I had gotten past the need for my binky. On a baby level, I had realized all was not lost.

And, this, perhaps is how we need to view the Most High, even within the context of our disordered food issues.

“Since you were precious in my sight… I have loved you…”

Isaiah 43:4

The unease I wrongly absorbed kept threatening, “You’re unlovable and you have gone too far. You are pathetic, hopeless and disqualified.”

But nothing is further from the truth. Divine love extends beyond our finites selves and flaws.

“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, ‘Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.’”

Jeremiah 31:3

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?”

Jeremiah 32:27

And this brings us back to our enthusiastic baby gif.

For, we may easily see ourselves as that tot. It’s relatable for us to equate baby’s reaction toward ice cream to that of our gleeful response to our chosen food.

But, if we look a little closer, maybe we can see something else. The Most High has boundless joy and enthusiasm concerning us.

Referencing this gif, our Creator is the elated baby and, yes, we are that delectable ice cream cone. We are that irresistible to Him.

“The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

Seeing this, knowing this, embracing this and incorporating this into our food and life issues, therefore, becomes the next, ongoing, imperfect work we live.

Sooner or later, on our own timetables, we see the hungry for love cliché is true.

  “For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”

Psalms 107:9

So, the challenge is to pay attention to our reactions to anything, especially food.

And while we’re reacting, we need not be deterred from Divine Intervention’s capable, loving response, often, in spite of ourselves.

“I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD... which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.”

Isaiah 63:7

That is sweeter than any ice cream cone.

Copyright © 2016 by Sheryle Cruse