Food is undoubtedly a big part of your life. How much time a day do you spend eating, thinking about eating, planning to eat or what to eat, wishing you were eating, and wishing you hadn't eaten so much? For a person who loves food and cooking (me), that takes an even bigger chunk out of your life.

That reality makes me a little nervous when I read things like Philippians 3:18-19:

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

How much of my worship is directed toward food? How many of the decisions I make have to do with my stomach? It's a scary thought, and that's one reason I think fasting is an important practice for me. It's a reminder that food isn't everything.

My desire is that this Lenten experiment in simplicity will dethrone food in my life to some degree. I think it's okay to love making and eating food, but I'm interested to see what six weeks of quietness on that front would look like. If there were ever a hard time to make that happen, it would be these particular six weeks. Between visiting friends, attending our yearly SAM conference (meals provided) and returning to Charlotte, it's not really possible for me to follow a strict rule about food or fasting.

Here are some of the ideas I have for how to seek simplicity with regard to food.

1. drink only water
2. don't eat sweets
3. eat vegetarian
4. avoid processed foods 
5. cook as simply as possible (without necessarily making it unpleasant to eat)
6. avoid richer foods 
7. take advantage of what's already in the house
8. be content eating random groupings of leftovers

As I said, that's not something I could easily do during this season or something I feel called to take serious measures to make happen. So I'm pursuing that in my home and setting it aside when it would be more appropriate. Since this is my Lenten discipline and not Tim's, I want to be sensitive to his needs and desires. When we're sharing a meal with others, I want to be gracious and involved, not putting this above God's gift to me of a communal experience with friends. You get the idea.

In the end, I don't want food to be my god. Nutrition is important, but food is one of the most temporal things I can spend my time and money on. I want to try to keep that in perspective. We'll see.

1 Comment

1. Unknown on March 1, 2010 at 10:54 AM

   oops. (re: this weekend) :)