Give me Something UNHEALTHY!

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Graeme Wilson in Victory Call

I LOVE unhealthy food! I’m the biggest fan of Mac & Cheese and McDonalds and Chocolate and really almost every unhealthy food you can name… but lately I’ve made a healthy lifestyle change. I’m buying grass-fed meats, drinking TONS of water, looking for organic labels in the grocery stores, having “green smoothies,” and I’ve even splurged on some fish oil pills (which sounds gross, but really isn’t). At first I started this as a means to lose the “winter body” weight, but the more I got into it, the more excited I got about the health benefits of really feeding my body instead of just “eating.” I was starting to genuinely enjoy real, fresh, nutritious, home-cooked, packed-with-nutrients-without-the-processing food.

The first two weeks, I was so excited about eating things that were not filled with pesticides, hormones, or poisonous chemicals… but last night I caved!! I came home from Bible Study around 11:00PM and my sister (who is also my apartment neighbor) had two slices of pizza for me! After a very short internal battle, I enjoyed them and they were AMAZING… until this morning. This morning I felt gross, and I knew it was because of those two slices of pizza I had.

It’s the same thing with our spiritual life. Sometimes we feel as though we are in a really good place and we’re excited about that, but then in a moment of weakness we cave and we sin. We might have momentary pleasure, but we leave feeling gross. It reminds me of what Paul wrote in Romans 7 when he was talking about his battle with the flesh.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! – Romans 7:14-25

Please know that I’m not saying that enjoying a couple slices of pizza is wrong, it’s okay to enjoy those things in moderation, but it was an interesting analogy connecting mistakes to consequences. I remember thinking, “Ugh! I did not want to eat that pizza, but I did and now I’m so mad at myself.” Pleasure might be for a moment, but the feeling that comes afterward is NOT fun!

Erin Culleny serves as a Marketing Assistant and Staff Writer. She loves encouraging women through her Victory Calls and finds such joy in praying for her sisters in Christ. Her favorite activities include reading her Bible, encouraging others with scripture, buying new makeup, buying dresses, and eating at the Cheesecake Factory… In that order!