Low Carb Diet
By Grant Gaines
In today’s “get healthy” society few weight loss solutions have taken off quite like the low carb diet. The idea behind this diet is to limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat which forces your body to look for alternative fuel sources to run off of. The first fuel source the body burns when no carbs are available is fat. Therefore, in theory, if you limit your carbohydrate intake, your body will burn your excess fat cells.
Many people have seen great success in losing weight because of the low carb diet. And while the low carb diet may be great for losing weight, I worry that many Christians today have adopted a “low carb diet” in their relationship with God.
You go to work early and leave late. You volunteer for Awana’s, PTA, and at the YMCA. Your weekend is filled with sporting events, yard work, and entertainment. None of these activities by themselves are bad things. But when the business of life begins to intrude on our time with the Giver of Life, we find ourselves living a spiritually low carb diet.
You may be asking yourself, “What do you mean a ‘spiritually low carb diet?’” Well, in John 6:35 (NIV) Jesus said, “…I Am the Bread of Life.” Or in other words, just as bread (which is a generic way of saying “all food”) is essential to our bodies, so Jesus is essential to our faith. If you take Jesus out of Christianity all you have left is a worthless, worldly religion that does nothing for you. But many Christians today seem to be just trying to “get by” with as little Jesus as possible.
Some extreme cases of the low carb Christian diet include the people who go to church only three times a year. Once on Christmas, once on Easter, and once when the in-laws come into town. Another textbook example of the low carb Christian diet is the person who has love for their family and friends but not for the dying world (which is in direct contradiction to Jesus’s teachings in Matthew 5:44-47).
These are obvious cases of a low carb Christian diet. But even the most devout Christians can find themselves feeding on a low carb Christian diet if they are not careful of distractions.
There are so many different things Satan uses to distract us and to fill our time. Possessions, physical appearance, relationships, jobs, hobbies, etc. And when we fill our schedules with all these things, we start losing the time we used to spend with God. This leads us to unintentionally phase out the “Bread of Life” from our spiritual diets.
What are you filling your life with?
I believe we can only fill ourselves up with so much “stuff” before we are literally over saturated. Like your suitcase before a long vacation, we can only fill our lives up so much before we have no more room. And every time we pencil in another activity into our daily schedule we are filling up our “suitcase” more and more, leaving ourselves with less and less time to spend with the Lord.
A great example of this is the story of Mary and Martha. In Luke 10:38-42 we read about the two sisters who hosted Jesus and the twelve disciples to their house for a meal. Martha must have been an excellent cook for the Son of God to choose her to make food for Him and His friends. So when Jesus came knocking on her door with His twelve hungry friends, Martha excitedly went to work in the kitchen.
Martha’s excitement must have quickly worn off as soon as she realized the monumental task at hand. While Martha was diligently working in the kitchen she saw her sister, Mary, sitting at Jesus’s feet soaking in His teaching. After a while, Martha couldn’t stand it anymore and bust into the living room where Jesus was and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help!” (Luke 10:40, NIV).
But Jesus didn’t give into Martha’s demands by hurrying Mary away into the kitchen to help her sister. Instead Jesus responded to Martha by saying, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42, NLT).
Martha was so busy making a meal that was, “…here today and then gone tomorrow…” (Mark 6:30, NIV) that she was missing out on the eternal Son of God’s presence under her own roof. In His response, Jesus was essentially telling Martha not to worry about the physical bread but to start focusing on the spiritual “Bread” that was right before her.
I’ll ask the question again, what are you filling your life with? Are you getting bogged down with all the details and distractions or are you filling your life with the Bread of Life?
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled”
– Matthew 5:6 (NIV)
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
