I\’ve been wanting to explain how I approach certain topics related to health and wellness. I want to outline my priorities, because it will inform (I hope) the way I write as a whole and where I want to be as a person.
A fellow named Aaron Baart recently wrote an article entitled \”When Cultural Scripts and Christian Identity Crash.\” He addresses the polarization of belief systems in the western world, the \”us vs them\” mentality that throws so many of us into conflict, and pulls from his own set of beliefs regarding one particular hot-button issue as an example of what it looks like to, as an old pastor of mine once preached, \”make the main thing the main thing.\” The main thing is Jesus. Knowing what (or perhaps rather Who) the main thing is does not make this easier per se, but it necessarily reorients the Christian back to Christ.
There are so many cool things I could talk about regarding this article, but the main thing I want to get to here is how rather than honing in on an issue and narrowing in on its wrongness or rightness, Baart pulls at our vision, expanding it, and in doing so, expanding yet also somehow still focusing our sense of the beauty of Christ. I am reminded of the fullness of the vision of the coming kingdom touted in scripture. It is not that we will stop sinning because we know sin is wrong and we shouldn\’t do it. We will stop sinning because of the coming together, the clicking-into-place, of what is good, the reorientation of our lives around what is true and most beautiful. (If you didn\’t get that from the article, I\’m ok with that because I\’m fully aware of my brain trampoline and that it doesn\’t work right all the time.)
The Experiment
ALL of that now being said… come the month of June there will be a challenge happening in my household and it won\’t make sense how this all ties together but I swear I will explain, and if it STILL doesn\’t make sense, please remember my faulty brain trampoline. (Really the experiment will just be for my husband and I, the kids won\’t be doing this except by unfortunate association.) I will be fasting from any added sugar in my diet for the entirety of the month of June. This means eating sugar that only naturally occurs in food (and I know, sugar comes from something in nature, but hopefully you get my meaning).
WHY?!?!
Now, why, Jenn, after talking about how beautiful Jesus is and just recently having heard from your marriage counselor to try to do something together with your husband that\’s NOT painful, would you attempt this? This sounds both not beautiful and very painful.
A couple of things are happening. By the time this post comes out, I will have finished breastfeeding my youngest, so any dietary changes I was afraid to make or was too lazy to figure out while breastfeeding will no longer be useable as an excuse. I\’ve been eating like a horse because of the extra calorie needs and I want to reset myself a little.
But mainly, it\’s a small thing (although it definitely won\’t feel small) in order to accomplish a larger thing. It ties together so many aspects of life that I want to steward well. It is, in essence, a fast. Fasting has long been used by Christians to focus the self on God by using the pangs of the item fasted from to serve as a reminder to lean on Jesus.
It is also a way to steward my body well. I want to figure out how to take care of it, this resource that God has graciously given me. I want to use it to love people well; my husband, my family, my friends, my church, my patients, anyone who comes my way. I want to expand my capacity to do more. This means living intentionally, doing things that challenge me, and pushing to increase my vitality and energy through practical, day to day things. It means things like taking care of my poor pancreas, which has been flooded with simple sugars for many months and is probably working overtime.
It is a way to steward knowledge gained through science and research well by utilizing it with the understanding that it is a resource, graciously given, but to be handled with discernment and wisdom, neither of which is gained by lack of trying. And I do believe that research and science is a resource, a way to explain and creatively utilize this beautifully, wildly created and sculpted world.
It is a way to be reminded that living with Jesus doesn\’t just mean knowing and understanding big theological ideas and having big God moments. It also means living and being faithful in the day to day things, seeing God in ALL the things.
I also want to be a resource for people who are struggling with their health. I want to be that nurse in the church that people go to when they have questions about anything, a resource and advocate for its members. I want this place, this blog, to be a place where I explore that, challenge myself to understand and show compassion for those who are struggling.
And as Baart did with his article in relation to Christians and politics, I want to help people expand their understanding of their health and wellness, these resources meant to be used not just to live our lives as we want to, but to show off who God is. Which means expanding my understanding, appreciation, and application of everything he has given me.
I\’m also not planning to become a health writer specifically. Perhaps my goal is more to make health and wellness something like a spiritual discipline. I will look for resources and articles and books if I have any, and I\’ll be drawing on some level of personal experience and knowledge . But hopefully, I can make this a place where the physical and spiritual meet, resource for both the minister and the layman.
WHO KNOWS, but let\’s just keep pushing forward, shall we?