Obesity and Christian Discipline

yesterday, i suggested that we can solve our obesity epidemic by
encouraging everyone to smoke. that was tongue in cheek, a joke,
silly.
however,
thinking more about it on this morning's bike ride, i wondered about
the high concentration of Christians in this country and the neglected
discipline of fasting.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
will be filled." Jesus, Beatitude, Mountain Sermon

i know when we hear this verse we often think of it in terms of
desperately craving righteousness, but it can also mean fasting in
anticipation of righteousness. Jesus' statement seems like a condensed
version of what God was telling Isaiah in chapter 58...

2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

3 'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail. (NIV)

All this to say, if American believers were encouraged to hunger and
thirst for righteousness, maybe they would bring America back from the
edge of this epidemic...and as a side benefit we'd see alot more
righteousness. Smaller waistlines and righteousness to boot, God sure
wrote a good book on life. the sad part is that some would only be
motivated by the waistline aspect.

how am i doing with this? i've gone back to the practice of skipping
lunch. but i have many lunchtime meetings so i haven't turned the time
into prayer. i'm also learning that if you eat breakfast at 6:30 and
dinner at 5:30 and the kids go to bed at 8:30, there is still a couple
hours for a third meal. so i'm trying not to sabotage myself after the
kids go to bed.

i've heard fasting can be refraining from something other than food,
but nothing compares to hunger pangs. there is real pain when it comes
to fasting from food, much more than from fasting from watching
"Friends" reruns. food is not something i can survive long without. no
other alternative humbles me like a food fast.

so American Christendom, fat and satisfied, see Revelation 3
17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a
thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor,
blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the
fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can
cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you
can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest,
and repent.