Losing it

Weekly Word Conversation flows freely as we are sitting socially distant, scattered around the lunchroom. Inevitably, someone looks at their lunch, either the quantity or the quality, and starts the lament. “I need to lose X number of pounds.” “Me too,” another person answers and usually, this number of pounds to be lost is always a little more than the first. “Well, I know what I’m doing wrong.” Then, the roll call of foods and their matching negative symptoms whether as a chronic disease trigger or weight gain would begin. We are all nurses we know this. Still, many of us have had this same conversation for years along with cycles of good eating patterns, only to fall off the wagon weeks down the road. The issue is not what we know but the will to begin and follow through for our own well-being. The problem is not knowledge but nature. Here is what the Apostle Paul said when he found himself with sinful habits he needed to lose: I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:21-25). In the same way that health professionals develop and keep unhealthy habits all while knowing the consequences, you will sometimes do the wrong thing despite having the right resolve. The victory comes when we do not stop doing what is right because we are not able to get it done perfectly every time. Every right deed or thought is a step in the right direction whether we are on the road to health, weight loss, or heaven. Don’t be sabotaged by imperfection. You may fail, correction, WE will fail at times but that does not make us failures. Thanks be to God who causes us to walk in triumphant procession with Christ (despite who we are).