The grace of God

The Church teaches that grace is unmerited, because God requires nothing but a willingness to believe that we may be healed.  We are not asked to work for it, we are not asked to desire it, we are not even asked to be a good person and thereby deserving of it.  Religious people are not necessarily virtuous: they simply have humbled themselves enough to believe that God can perform miracles in their lives: that they can have good lives and feel close to God, even if they are not exceptional people.

The first century Christians were no different than the twenty-first century Christians: they argued ceaselessly over who was saved and who wasn't, who was good and who wasn't, who was right and who wasn't, ad infinitum.  Fortunately for us, the hardest working apostle, straight from the stock of Christ, set the record straight on how to receive the love of God.  Hear it!

"You stupid people in Galatia!  After you have had a clear picture of Jesus Christ crucified, right in front of your eyes, who has put a spell on you?  There is only one thing I should like you to tell me: How was it that you received the Spirit - was it by practice of the Law, or by believing in the message you heard?  Having begun in the Spirit, can you be so stupid as to end in the flesh?  Can all the favours you have received have had no effect at all - if there really has been no effect?  Would you say, then, that he who so lavishly sends Spirit to you, and causes the miracles among you, is doing this through your practice of the Law or because you believed the message you heard?"

Galatians 3.1-5, The New Jerusalem Bible

On food

I switched my blog URL today, and so far I have had 50 hits. That's about the same amount I had in 2013 combined. Guess there were a lot of misguided searches...

Given that no one here knows me, it might seem irrelevant, but this entry is actually a pretty big shift in my interests and growth as a person. In these last months of my 35th trip around the sun, I began to have a more amicable relationship with food. I have always had really screwy eating habits, but, having been a practicing alcoholic, I guess the whole unhealthy facets in lifestyle thing was part and parcel.

So a brief introduction, I have been, for the most part, at a healthy or slightly below average weight, though I did go through an intensive sort of ascetic lifestyle for few years and was scary skinny, and then another time I had a rough season or two after being fired from a job and, though I don't like to admit it, was a bit over-weight (I am pretty sure: I am good at blocking memories, but I did see a picture from a wedding I attended...)

I follow this new-ager online who thinks she is from another planet, on her less humble days, but for some reason I am practically enamoured with her. She just had a baby and her work went more from spiritual to food-based, though raw organic foods has always been a big piece of her identity. I had always felt bewildered by what she said and recommended, and over-whelmed by her exotic recipes and items. But I have become increasingly more interested in food after having a real change in life events the past few months, and I saw how healthy eating heals me both physically and mentally, and thereby emotionally.

More recently after reading that she did not have stretch marks because of the foods that she ate during her pregnancy, accompanied by my wish to stop the aging process, I am becoming more interested in specifically fruits and vegetables; for it is with those that I have seen for myself their rejuvenating powers, felt satiated and energized for hours, and am able to enjoy them without much prep-work or know-how. Now that I have seen fruitful results (pun intended!), I can recognize how intimidated I have felt by food, and how inferior I can feel when it comes to making food choices. This is insanity to me, for food is a pillar of my very existence!

Everyone knows that obesity is a problem in our society, and I have heard time and again that it is not necessarily a consequence of bad eating habits, inactivity, or addiction, and on the latter, I will now agree. But I also now believe wholeheartedly that we as a people have lost reality with what and how we are to eat, and now know nothing about food or how it works with our bodies. And then we justify "healthy" levels of fat to validate our gluttonous lifestyles and (rightly so) poor self-images. I use my own experiences to make sense of this.

I maintain an average or slightly below average weight, because I don't eat much meat and I am an athlete, but all it takes is one day of bad eating and it shows. Then all it takes is one week of build-up, and I become demoralized. Given that I am not an unusual case, can one only imagine how easy it is for someone with a slower or average metabolism, as well as who is not athletic, to gain extra weight? I believe that we don't understand the dangers of certain foods in relation to our bodies, along with our eating patterns, because these habits started so long ago that the repercussions simply became normal.

So, why are we as a people over-weight? I assert that the human body was designed to consume very little food, and even less meats and dairy. But this means that what is consumed must be almost always, if not always, healthy (fruits, vegetables, grains, yogurt, and lean meats, the last arguably not even necessary with enough vitamins, fiber, and the protein that is found in a wide variety of fruits and veggies), and then lastly washed down, for the most part, with only  water. All the rest is merely comfort and decadent eating and drinking. 

That's about it!

Freeze

I will fight
to the death
to protect
the hurt
feelings
that make me
vulnerable
to you.