“Health Guru Trips & Face-Plants”

Public Service Announcement: The New Deli will be closed Monday, May 26, for Memorial Day! Hope everyone can enjoy some time off, get caught up with loved ones (or maybe even just chores and yardwork). Meanwhile, I was reflecting on zealousness. Enthusiasm. Character defects… I’m sharing a picture of this month in the garden- there is a pond in there somewhere, but the plants have been taking off, blooming, spreading. It’s hard sometimes to see the forest for the trees, the pond for the garden… Ya know…

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” So. I feel like I’ve tried to “obey” those instructions (even though I may fall short). But I’ve also tried to obey other decrees, by health aficionados, alternative-medicine doctors, bloggers, “experts”. Did you notice there’s a lot of controversy over how to be the healthiest version of ourselves?!

Even if I follow all the supposed rules, removing processed foods, eating a “pure diet”, getting proper nourishment from (supposed) superfoods, etc., I still might have problems. Because it’s not really all about my good intentions. God still wants me to depend on Him.

So I might look to all that info first, instead of letting God’s Spirit direct my steps. But He reminds me, one way or another, when I’m getting off course. I was cruising along, doing quite well health-wise, even keeping up a (supposedly) good exercise regimen. Then I heard of how sprinting was just so great. So- I had been running, but added sprinting to my routine. Another fitness coach said you should wake up the muscles first, with jumping jacks or the like. I started doing that too.

I did my new exercise routine with zeal for a few months. Enthusiasm can be a good thing. But. Even good things can take us off course. What happened in my enthusiastic attempt at even better health? I pulled some muscle. Now I’ve discontinued that new routine for months now, hoping the injury will heal on its own. I have a pinch in my hip to remind me that I may have gotten off course.

I don’t mean to trash myself, but it does make me look at some of my character defects. Those defects are somewhat tempered through interactions with my husband and other loved ones. I live and learn. But ultimately, I need God’s help to buffer my impetuous, over-zealous spirit. He can take our challenges and defects, and mold them into something better!

“For what this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God’s sight. As the scripture says, ‘God traps the wise in their cleverness'”1 Corinthians 3:19