JUNK FOODIE

THE SCENARIO: Hearkem, a Christian brother, is into junk food. Greasy double and triple cheese burgers, lots of crispy, salty fries, and milkshakes are his favorite combo; thin and crispy house special pizzas are a close second, and on it goes like that. Hearkem is approaching middle age now; he has a soft job that requires little physical exertion, and he generally does not care too much about exercising per se. Hearkem has been told by his doctor that his arteries have constricted due to his diet and largely lethargic lifestyle, and that he better substitute for the junk wholesome, nutritional foods, and discipline himself daily with an exercise regimen, or suffer the risk of increased health problems, or even death. Hearkem has a wife and three young children.

In the outworking of this scenario please consider the following:

1. We were created spirit, soul, and body; these three make up the unified, whole person. It follows that we require three kinds of nutritional food, and Jehovah God has perfectly provided all three (Christian Scripture, Christian fellowship [inside and outside the immediate family], and a God-given diet ”The Maker's Diet”—//Rubin/Stanley). It is intuitively obvious that if any one of these three—spirit, soul, body—are out of sync with the others, the whole person suffers, and in turn God and others cannot be served optimally. Would you agree that if we Christians are bent on feeding our spirits the very best (a steady diet of Jehovah God/the Bread of Life), we should have a passion, at least, for nutritionally feeding our bodies the very best also, as often as is feasible anyway, in His honor? It seems particularly odious for a Christian not to do so, especially if the issue simply comes down to a matter of personal choice (taste), and not necessity. There is clearly a sacrifice involved here that we are oftentimes unwilling to make. For example, with the availability of crock pots and slow cookers these days, even a person with a busy schedule should be able to make arrangements for a healthy meal for themselves or their family.

2 Our next point considers a stewardship angle. With respect to Hearkem, the uncanny thing is that he is in most every way sincerely trying to be Christ-like and a good steward of his gifts, but when it comes to food and the stewardship of his own body, he “lets go.” One could say that before his doctor's report he did so possibly out of ignorance to some degree, but even since the report he continues to eat and live like that. It is not as if he slacked once in a while and most of the time he was largely disciplined; just the opposite. Consider Hearkem's witness here—how important is an eating-stewardship witness? Since many of us are guilty of bad eating habits once in a while, such a witness probably does not carry a lot of weight these days; do you think it should, and why/why not? Please discuss, at least, personal health benefits and honor to our Lord; also Christ-likeness.

3. For a Christian, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cr 6:19). What does that statement mean to you; we mean to say, how do you understand Him to be with you that intimately? We believe, as said in Scripture, that God is Spirit (Jhn 4:21-24), and it is His Spirit in communion with our own that fuses seamlessly. Notwithstanding, we are mortal, and while we draw breath, our spirits are clothed in mortality, which necessitates a fleshly sort of interface on our part for the time being. Now if we grieve (Eph 4:30) the Spirit through our eating habits and/or life style, why do you suppose He is grieved—is it for His sake, or ours? Both? Can you categorize to some extent at least this grief He feels—one should be able to do this, after all, we were created in His image?

4. Scripture tells us that eating is one of the great blessings of life (eating, drinking, the fruit of one's labors-Ecc 3:13). God knows precisely how much we enjoy eating—we must not miss the point that He came up with the idea, and it is He that made it such a wonderful experience (it is hard to find much in this life that is more enjoyable than to share a wholesome meal with friends or loved ones; recall how much our Savior seemed to enjoy eating with sundry folk). Eating would seem to serve a twofold purpose, at least—it is obviously necessary to eat to live—the body needs fuel to replenish itself and function. But there is also an emotional aspect to it—God has built into eating a sort of “fun factor.” This leads us to our next obvious consideration—do you think that junk foodies misappropriate God's “fun factor” in effort to bring into sync a spirit, soul, body interconnection that has somehow gotten out of sync? If right, is this misappropriation sin—why/why not? Maybe you don't agree with our premise—we admit that our premise may be off target—we are motivated by the thought that so much of sin seems to be a misappropriation of what was originally a loving design by Jehovah God for our blessing, and pleasure, and good (so as to see Him in it and know that we are loved so very much by Him, and to love Him all the more in return).

5. One must in a discussion such as this consider the adverse affects of unhealthy eating. Recall that Scripture says that '...one reaps what one sows...' (Gal 6:7-8). It would seem that given the abundance of medical evidence concerning it, unhealthy eating/living is bad sowing, for the attendant evidential harvest is sick. Nothing good comes out of sin in the long haul; one must conclude here that unrestrained unhealthy eating is sinful, for we know that sin is the root cause of corruption, decay, and death—what do you think? How about an occasional lapse—is that sin? Why/why not—please defend Scripturally.

6. It is not always possible for folk to have access to healthy food; sometimes folk are very happy just to have a few morsels to eat, regardless of their quality. In other instances, folk have had bad examples set for them by family, or friends, or are just simply ignorant of the deadly consequences of unhealthy eating. We wish to say in this point that we understand that these situations exist, and are prayerfully mindful of them.

7. We would like finally to consider the role of the media and peers in our eating habits. We will disclose up front that we are by and large anti-media. We believe that the media serves Satan's interests quite comprehensively (as a proven control freak and hater of God and humankind, he uses the media for control, and to serve his deadly interests). And we do not think it is any different with respect to their callous bottom-line-motivated advertising concerning the food we eat. We live in the West and so our comments are directed there. The influence that the media can bring to bear on the decisions we make is staggering. Through their clever use of the “heroes” and “heroines” the populace idolizes, and other cosmetic superficialities like that, they move the markets. That media bombards us by way of internet, television, radio, billboards, you name it. Such a constant barrage of influence can only be avoided by shutting them off completely of course. Even so, they seem to find a way in anyway it seems. Peers too can have a sort of role-model affect on us and our eating habits. It seems that especially adolescents and young adults are vulnerable here. How great an influence do you think the media and peer pressure have with respect to our eating habits—none, slight, moderate, heavy; do you think it is deleterious? Ultimately the responsibility attending what one eats rests upon self of course.

WORKS CITED

Rubin, Jordan S., with Charles F. Stanley.

The Maker's Diet

Siloam, A Strang Company

Lake Mary, Florida, 1-59185-714-7.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE LEGEND

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