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Mar 02, 2024 06:00am

The “Perfect” Diet Plan

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The reels played one after another on silent-mode while I tried to fall asleep. (Not so secret-scrolling your phone to try to fall asleep is not usually very effective…) Due to whatever technology magic happens to determine the algorithm, I tend to see a lot of advertisements for health supplements, superfoods, exercise plans, and various other “help your body get healthy plans” that all claim to be the secret to good health. Most likely, I am seeing these because I was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, which has led me to join social media groups with others like me and to search for the best diets and habits for my health.

If you haven’t noticed, there is no shortage of opinions about how to achieve better health. If you aren’t careful, you could spend thousands of dollars before you know it to obtain “the proven key to a healthy life” and have a cabinet full of powders, pills, and promises that may or may not benefit you at all.

Having a healthy body is not a simple task. It does not come from a single pill or a powder, although there are plenty of products that I am sure do actually help. But, just as having a healthy physical heart and mind is not easy, neither is it an easy task to have a healthy heart and mind, spiritually. Both are important and require more than one simple ingredient to achieve those health goals.

As I read through Hebrews 13 this week, the first 5 verses reminded me about how I should set my goals in this life and how to live more like Jesus: love others like myself, show kindness and hospitality, be faithful, don’t let money be my motivator, be content… Verses 5 and 6 remind me that I can do all of this, because God will never fail me or abandon me. He is my Helper, so I do not have to be afraid.

This chapter continues to lay out the key moves to having a healthy spiritual heart. First, it is important to look back at God’s faithfulness in the past-in the lives of spiritual leaders in the Bible and more recently. Look back at your own life and remember the times God has shown His faithfulness to keep your heart focused on His goodness. This will help us to not be “attracted by strange, new ideas.” Instead, “our strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.” (verse 9)

Okay…I want to take that last verse out of context and just run with it-ignore all of the rules about food….eat all of the oreos….but that’s not even what this is talking about. In the Old Testament times, there were A LOT of rules about everything, food included. There are still many people who believe in religious food regimens, even some that religiously stick to a specific diet to “fix” their lives. We see this secularly, as well.

By the time I had received the news that the reason I had a grand-mal seizure was because of a softball-sized tumor in my brain, while sitting on an ER bed, I was getting messages from all kinds of people letting me know what kind of diet I should follow to eliminate the tumor, people who wanted good for me and truly believed the diet they recommended truly could cure me.

But, at the very root of it all, we should beware of religious or secular dietary claims and instead consume grace as necessary as food. Verses 10-14 address how the Old Testament rules did not permit the priests in the Tabernacle to eat at the altar. The priests would bring the blood of a sacrificial animal into the Holy Place as part of the sin sacrifice, but the bodies of the animals had to be burned outside of camp. Verse 12 tells us, “Just like the animal sacrifices that were offered to atone for sins of the people, Jesus also suffered and died outside of the city gates to make His people holy by means of His own blood.”

So, as we are surrounded by noise telling us how to achieve our best health, when it comes to our spiritual health, let’s pursue a strong heart by feeding our bodies on grace, on God’s Word, and on a deepening relationship with Him, because He made the offer of this diet available to us when He chose to sacrifice Himself for us. This diet will allow us to have a strong heart that is prepared for doubts, fears, and the inevitable challenges we will face along the way.