God’s Word gave purpose to my journey to better health, providing the reason to order my life. This Word came to me in numerous ways: through the faithful preaching of the Word, friends, and other means of God’s choice, such as prayer, music, teaching, and studying the catechisms used by the church through the ages. I knew something had to change, and it had to be me.
After losing over 100 pounds of excess weight, several friends suggested I write a cookbook to compile the recipes I was sharing on Facebook, but cookbooks are a dime a dozen. Weight Loss books likewise fill the shelves of many bookstores, yet the journey to better health is as different as each person traveling the path.
After one special Sunday at church, however, I decided to write a book about my journey to better health, emphasizing God’s work in my mind and heart to shed the pounds that were preventing me from being the reflection of Him that He created me to be.
Thus the book, Freedom To Enjoy, came into being.
I designed the book to share my personal journey to better health, which in large part included shedding over 130 pounds of weight over the course of 8 years of yo-yo dieting, including finally losing the last 110 pounds in a little less than a year, which will never return, by the grace of God.
I was born and raised by Mom and Dad in southeast Michigan with four brothers and one sister. I was very thin during my pre-teen years, almost too thin, but grew in my teens to a healthy weight.
Now, mind you, during my younger years I would often eat six plates of mashed potatoes in one sitting without gaining any weight.
In my late teens, however, I started dating a husky guy who loved hamburgers. He’d come nearly every evening to get me for a date that almost always involved a visit to either the A&W drive-in root beer stand or the Jack in the Box drive thru.
Needless to say, I started to pile on the pounds.
Mom was a short but hefty woman. I was taller, but we both were carrying extra weight. Mom joined Weight Watchers (now known as WW), which in those days promoted the “Core” program.
I don’t remember much about that program, but I do remember that when she and I began a weight loss contest, I knew that I could pig out on canned French style green beans and lose 10 pounds a month.
Yup! In six months, I lost that 60 pounds I’d gained. I was good! I was happy! That was in the early 1970s.
Over the years, however, I re-gained those 60 pounds plus many more, until late in 2011, I was at my heaviest weight ever and was feeling miserable carrying over 150 extra pounds and thinking I was powerless to change my poor diet. I knew that I had to do something.
I joined WW online and lost almost 100 pounds. I looked good and felt good. I had great support from my Michigan church family, but my husband’s position at work was eliminated, and we had to move out of state, to central Ohio, for work.
We lost our jobs in Ohio, and my husband received a temporary work assignment in central Tennessee.
I gained a LOT of weight in Tennessee, because I was bored. With my husband working late evenings, he needed me to keep the same schedule. Smashburgers there made THE best burgers and fries! Also, Jack in the Box was right down the road for tacos and MORE fries!
With all the new excess pounds I was carrying around on me in Tennessee, it was by the grace of God alone that I survived going back to Ohio and then moving to two places in Indiana and then on to North Carolina in mid-2017, where we live now.
Between Spring of 2013 (Tennessee days) and Autumn of 2018 (here in North Carolina), I’d put back on all but a mere 17 pounds of the weight I had lost in 2012. I was suffering chronic pain and fatigue to the point where I could barely walk from the front to the back of our small apartment. It hurt to cook a meal, so my husband started doing all the cooking.
My doctor was very patient with me while treating my gluttony-caused health problems. When I was ready, she referred me to a hormone specialist (endocrinologist), who in turn referred me to a nutritionist. In less than a year I shed 110 pounds, all by the grace of God and with His strength in my weakness.
I wanted to feel better in order to be more useful. Good weight loss goal, to be sure, but once the weight comes off and I feel better, then what?
I named this my “journey to better health.” My health has improved. I feel great. I have more energy. Good goal, mission accomplished, but now what?
I needed a sustainable reason to continue my healthy lifestyle beyond weight loss and good health.
Epiphany: IT’S NOT ABOUT ME! WOW! From where did THAT come? It came from the Lord God, Who made heaven and earth and all that they contain, including me. “Well yes, of course, but how did it come?” one might ask.
It came during and through a worship service on Sunday, January 20, 2019, two specific parts of that service: our corporate confession of faith and our pastor’s preaching of God’s Word.
From our church bulletin that Sunday: WE CONFESS OUR FAITH TOGETHER: Heidelberg Catechism #105 (Read Responsively) Q: What does God require in the sixth commandment? A: I am not to dishonor, hate, injure, or kill my neighbor by thoughts, words, or gestures, and much less by deeds, whether personally or through another; rather, I am to put away all desire of revenge. Moreover, I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself. Therefore, also, the government bears the sword to prevent murder. (Emphasis added.)
Sermon text was 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Paul writing to Timothy: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2Timothy 4:6-8).
Sermon title was “Sanctity of Life Sunday: Is Life Worth Living to the End?” Here is a link to that sermon: In that sermon, our pastor stated that doctor-assisted (or unassisted, for that matter) suicide is not good because it diminishes the glory of God in the world by one of His image bearers.
The catechism answer that we recited together (highlighted above) was Punch One of the One-Two Punch. The sermon was Punch Two. Reviewing our sermon reflections together at home was Punch Three.
Repeating the Catechism answer part that convicted me: “Moreover, I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself.” OUCH. Pastor preached that suicide diminishes God’s glory in the world by one image bearer. YES!
At home afterward, I shared with my husband (John) that before October 24th (2018) when I started my journey to better health, I was harming and recklessly endangering myself, and I can’t do that anymore! John concurred, articulating it in light of the sermon: I WAS COMMITTING INCREMENTAL SUICIDE. OUCH! That was PUNCH THREE of the One-Two Punch!
After hearing all of THAT, there is NO WAY I’m turning back now! I am in this for life, with God’s help, by God’s grace. He’s got this! All the way! Now you can see my reason for the book: God’s glory! I begin by sharing the Word of God that convicted me and continues to drive me onward.
In the beginning, all was well with the world. See Genesis 1-2, where we see God’s marvelous works of creation, which He continues to sustain (Hebrews 1:3).
In Genesis 2:15-17, we see that “the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’”
Life is good. Adam has instruction from God, complete with boundaries for his own good. All is well; however, God saw something NOT good, saying (Genesis 2:18) “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” So the Lord made a woman for the man. (Genesis 2:21-22)
Perfect! Creation is complete. The man has a woman. The man and his wife had perfect fellowship with God, BUT! There’s a snake in the grass!
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’’ The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:1-5)
Oooooooh! Now THERE’s something to THINK about!
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6)
Uh-oh!
Yup! Mother Eve was tempted with food, and the story continues.
It’s OKAY, even GOOD, to enjoy food. If we didn’t eat food, we’d die; but if food becomes a source of comfort to us, it can become an idol, and if it becomes something to avoid, the avoidance likewise can become an idol.
How often do we today eat convenience foods simply because they taste SO good, though we may not be hungry? We crave them for the taste but can never get enough of them to satisfy our craving. Why? OUR CRAVING IS MISPLACED!
Our chief end as human beings is to “glorify God and to enjoy HIM forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, answer to question 1, emphasis added). When God gave His people the Ten Commandments, He spoke (in pertinent part): “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). That is the FIRST of the Ten.
Therefore, if we crave anything, it should be God.
The TENTH of the Ten (Exodus 20:17) says, “You shall not covet … anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Coveting is idolatry! Craving is coveting—unless we crave God Himself. Thus, we see the First and Tenth of the Commandments as Holy Bookends. Anytime we desire anything as much as or more than God Himself, we commit the grave sin of idolatry.
Obsession with food is idolatry. Obsession with weight management is idolatry. This includes both diet and exercise, and it includes gluttony, which is commonly defined as an inordinate appetite for (usually) food.
This food idolatry also includes an eating disorder known by experts as “orthorexia,” defined by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) as “an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating.” So, yes, even healthy eating can be an idol. We must check our hearts for motive.
Here is Paul to the Philippian church: “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things” (Philippians 3:18-19, emphasis added).
WOW. YIKES! Enemies of the cross of Christ? C’mon, Paul, I’m a Christian, SAVED by the cross of Christ, but you tell me that gluttons are His enemies! Hm. Yup! As Matthew Henry comments, “There are many called by Christ’s name who are enemies to Christ’s cross, and the design and attention of it. Their walk is a surer evidence what they are than their profession.”
Enemies. Idolatry. Food for the god-belly—but wait. I thought that food and drink are GOOD and NECESSARY for LIFE, so what gives? After all, Food and Drink are among the “all things” God richly gives us to enjoy, right? Well, yes, of course. Remember Paul to Timothy (bears repeating): “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (I Timothy 6:17).
Remember that God gave all the plants and trees on the earth to Adam and the animals “for food” (Genesis 1:30) to “eat freely” (Genesis 2:16), “but not from the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17).
God, being our Creator, owns us. He alone has the right to set our boundaries. When we go outside those boundaries, we sin. Sin has consequences, both temporal and eternal.
Weight management is a GOOD thing, when we are not obsessed with it. An obsession is a continual, even compulsive, preoccupation of the mind with a particular idea or thought. Remember that oldies song in which we hear “Can’t take my eyes off of you…”? The singer is obsessed with the object he beholds. That object has become an idol to him. Someone trying to lose weight who has an inordinate fear of gaining even 0.2 pound may well be obsessed with weight loss. Yes, weight loss can easily become an idol.
There are some very good reasons to shed extra poundage, and there are some really bad reasons to do the same. Losing weight is morally neutral, unless of course one destroys oneself thereby.
Inordinate appetites for food idolize food. That is gluttony. If we are overweight or obese due to gluttony, we need to do an about-face. I’m talking about myself here. I was a glutton. There, I said it! So, how does a glutton do an about-face without going overboard, exchanging one idol for another?
My initial reason to begin shedding the weight was to feel better. I suffered chronic pain and fatigue. I was severely obese. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Furthermore, I knew that I was living contrary to my Christian profession, yet I was weak, burdened, and enslaved to my food cravings.
God is always on time. He is never too early or too late. He knows exactly what we need, when we need it, and how to supply it.
“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
My reason was changing as I journeyed, until I learned that the incremental suicide I was committing against my own body was diminishing the glory of God in my sphere of influence. This image bearer had been poorly reflecting the glory of her Creator.
My reason now for the changes in my lifestyle is the glory of God in my sphere of influence. To properly reflect God’s glory in my world, I will take better care of myself in order to be of service to others for the sake of Christ, Who “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28), including me.
God’s Word gave purpose to my journey to better health, providing the reason to order my life. This Word came to me in numerous ways: through the faithful preaching of the Word, friends, and other means of God’s choice, such as prayer, music, teaching, and studying the catechisms used by the church through the ages.
I knew something had to change, and it had to be me.
The book, Freedom To Enjoy, reveals the exciting and varied moves of God, using the means He chose, as He lifted from me both the excess pounds and their burdens that formerly weighed on me so heavily.
Though my target audience is Christian women, it would not surprise me should others (both women and men) find something of benefit herein. I am available to share with your church ladies’ groups or any other women who may find this to be of benefit. Go here to find links to purchase the book and/or request a speaking engagement.
Cindy Taylor, author of “Freedom To Enjoy,” is a member of Harbor Church, PCA, in Mooresville, NC, where she lives with her husband John and their two cats, Grace and Mercy (so named as to remind us of God’s grace and mercy to us in Christ)