Spiritual Dieting

So, I’ve decided that it’s time to go on another diet. I can’t say that it’s something I want to do it’s just one of those things that would be in my best interest. If experience is any kind of teacher then I know (going in) that my chances of success are (at best) mixed. Over the last 30 years I’ve lost close to 150 pounds but the problem is that over those same years I have managed to find about 120 replacements.

The fact that after 30 years I’m down 30 pounds should be counted as a success but I remember how hard it is to drop a few pounds and how easy it is to pick them up. I have a friend who once told me (and I believe he knew of what he spoke) that it is physically possible to gain 3 pounds a day but it is physically impossible to lose 3 pounds a day which creates an interesting dilemma. It is easier to fail than it is to succeed.

We actually might say that about life in general. It is easier to quit something than it is to start something and it is easier to sit than it is to go ahead. We may know it is best and we may want to succeed but we have a life full of things that encourage us to fail. We need support.

For dieters there are groups like Weight Watchers and for people struggling with substance abuse there are groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. These are places where people who are struggling to do what is best can find emotional support for taking up that challenge. For followers of Jesus that place is the Church.

Starbucks is trying to encourage us to “take comfort in rituals” (that’s their new advertising campaign) and there are many people who see the Church as nothing more than comforting rituals or a cultural touchstone and they miss the whole point. The Church is a family of the forgiven and a gathering of the transformed. We have been given a message of new life to proclaim to a world filled with people who are struggling to do what is right and are failing.

So, it is time again for a little discipline and we need each other’s help if we are going to succeed. Just remember, the next time you are trying to decide if you should go to Church, that there are people there who need your help (attending is NOT all about us) and subsequently there are people there who will help you, too. Everybody wins.