I didn't know that God and all his heavenly glory would converge on me with a singular message that would be pounded into my body with more persistence than a teenage boy's bass: What's your purpose?
If running is for the sake of running, what good is it? If weight loss is just to fit into a smaller size or get healthier, what's it worth?
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I'd gotten that I can't just go to church, sing a song or memorize scripture in order to fulfill an obligation. Those things were specifically to bring glory to God and align my heart with His. But nothing about my eating habits or exercise goals fit within the framework of kingdom goals.
In group yesterday, a scripture on the opposite side of the page from a few weeks ago caught my eye:
For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live
as enemies of the cross of Christ. their destiny is desruction, their god is their
stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
--Philippians 3:18-19
TerKeurst follows that scripture with commentary: "Paul reprimands those whose lives are self-indulgent rather than self-sacrificing. By claiming the benefits of the cross but denying its power in their lives, he says they se tthe stage for their own destruction" (Made to Crave Participant's Guide 56).
For me, identifying self indulgence or selfishness is a little more obvious when it involves money or serving others. But when it involves food? That can't apply, can it?
But right there where I couldn't ignore it, I saw something--"...their god is their stomach..."
A life of service--of self denial--is one whole life, not a person fragmented into parts where Jesus applies here but doesn't apply here.
And I'm just now figuring it out.
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