- Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind. -
I’ve struggled with my weight for most of my life. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally started to get it under control.
Then, I had to deal with the whole infertility thing and ice cream makes me feel WAY better.
I’ve got to get my diet back under control again and trust me, that’s no fun.
Now, this verse doesn’t explicitly refer to struggles with gluttony or diet, but that experience provides a good lens for which to interpret these verses.
Let’s get started.
Losing weight is easy. You have to follow a diet and exercise. We have hundreds of apps, videos, and plans you can access for free.
The main challenge most people are going to experience with dieting has nothing to do with it, and it is extremely difficult and close to a word we don’t like AKA: discipline.
Consistency.
If you want to lose weight, you have to find a plan that leads to weight loss and stick with it for a length of time (probably around six months).
For me, that answer came in the form of Keto. I don’t think Keto is the answer to everything, but it really worked for me.
Why? Because what I got to eat was enjoyable. I weighed less than my senior year of high school while only walking 30 minutes a day and eating all the bacon and butter I wanted.
Okay, I also had a salad every day and a sandwich with no bread on it.
Here’s the thing about consistency, it teaches you to focus your gaze. It shows you to turn your gaze from temptations and to focus on the goal in front of you.
Before I gained that, I ate whatever I wanted. Driving past a steak and shake late at night? Well, I worked hard. I deserve the milkshake.
What am I saying? That like the verse above, I allowed my appetite to lead me to whatever it deemed best.
I had no control, but that’s not quite right. I had all the control; I’d just given it over to a part of myself that didn’t want what was best for me.
What would’ve been better? Obviously, had I’d given my perception discipline or been happy with the good things I had, I wouldn’t have let my desires carry me aimlessly.
Now, what does it matter to have control rather than to be possessed? Nothing. It’s all vanity my friend.
The man with the washboard abs? Worm food. The man morbidly obese at 37 dying in a hospital bed? Worm food.
What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I think sometimes that last part is misconstrued as the impetus to treat our exercise as a holy practice.
Although training and strengthening our bodies is good, it shouldn’t be considered a good unto itself, considering the vanity that goes along with it.
Rather, it is good stewardship of God’s temple. For what purpose? To use that strength in acts of love.
If I have a good body that only serves me, how am I different from the sinner?
What if I use it to serve? What if I use it to raise a family? What if I break it when the time comes for love’s sake?
This is the love to those who would lift their cross and follow Christ.
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