Yesterday in Super Church we talked about the man who prepared a Great Banquet and invited his guests.  (Luke 14:15-24)

And no one came.

In fact, they all had excuses.

Want to know what they were?

A field.

A yoke of oxen.

A new marriage.

I asked the kids if those things are bad.

Of course not.

But when they become more important than a relationship with the Banquet Thrower, they are trouble.

I want to be open to asking Jesus what is the “field/oxen/marriage” in my life?

What are the excuses keeping me from all He has for me?
 

I don’t want to admit it, but I dreaded the food topic.
 

Especially from “The 7 Experiment” perspective.

  

I’ve shared on here before that Food and I have had a love/hate relationship.  Well, food wasn’t the heart issue.  It was control.  And idolatry.  But it was externalized in food much of my younger years.

I worked so, so hard at learning how to read my body’s cues.  When was I full?  Why am I going to eat?  Just because “it’s time” or because I’m actually hungry?  Why am I fearful of eating this but not that?  If I do eat “this” can I make peace with it?  Or will I feel tempted to get rid of it?

Eating disorders are a scary thing.  You have to deal with the deeper, heart issues.  But you can’t ignore the fact that you have to deal with food.  Sooner or later.

 

It’s different than alcoholism.  The goal there is to abstain for a lifetime.  And daily surrender the battle to Jesus over powerlessness to alcohol.

But everyone has to eat.

Sigh.

So, honestly, I’ve been all over the place with this.  In the last 5 or so years, I seem to have landed on the following:

Eat mostly healthy when you’re hungry.

Don’t freak out about treats.

Exercise.

Not bad, I think.  Especially for someone with my history.

However.

I go through seasons where “don’t freak out about treats” gets interpreted as “teach children poor health habits.”

 

Or “eat mostly healthy” = “don’t eat breakfast, feed child decent lunch, eat chips and salsa during nap time.”

I think this might not be best for me.
 

I think most people (especially us women folk) have struggled with this issue.

I guess I’m just gonna be more publicly accountable with it right now.

Anyway, to open up The 7 Experiment, Jen Hatmaker talked about the story of the Rich Young Ruler.  She has this to say:

“It’s interesting that Jesus gently discarded all this young man’s good behaviors and instead plowed into a systemic issue separating him from he kingdom of God: wealth and position.
 

Rather than affirming the lovely side dishes, He went straight to the meat of the matter and totally shocked this well-behaved young man, who was doing so much right.
 

I mean, we could understand a rebuttal for a wife-beater or a child abuser or a swindler, but this guy diligently kept the commandments and even wanted to know what else he could do.

He was trying hard, flying right, on the up and up.

Then Jesus told him,

“It’s not about what you’re doing right; it’s about what you cherish.”

We can figure out what we cherish by how we feel when it is threatened.

Ack.  I want to pretend I didn’t just read that last sentence.

Because when the idea of eating whatever I want, whenever I want with no consequences is threatened…I am not happy.

So we’ll be journeying this direction.
 

Join me, won’t you?