“I am so frustrated,” the older
lady sitting across from me said. “I’m
desperate to lose weight and I just can’t!”
“What have you tried?” I asked her.
“Well, I got some online
subscription to a weight loss program and they sent me some medicine – I don’t
remember what it was. Anyway, it made me
feel so bad that I couldn’t eat! I only
took it for two days and then I stopped because of how bad I felt.”
“That’s unfortunate,” I said. “I guess not eating helps with weight loss.”
“Sure – but I don’t really want
something that makes sick – just something that gives me more will power. Then, I was going to try a keto diet,” she
said. “The problem there is that there
are so many carbs in this world that I like.
There’s cookies and pies and chocolate.
Chocolate!! I can’t imagine
giving up chocolate for even a week, much less longer than that.”
We talked for a while
longer. I have frequent conversations
about weight loss throughout my weeks and what I have discovered is that people
want a pill that will give them will power – without having side effects.
For some people, medicines like
Zepbound and Wegovy are good solutions – assuming their insurance covers them,
but for many, the cost and side effects are too much for them to be able to
take the medicine.
For many, the concept of weight
loss is something that is constantly longed for, but never achieved. Carnivore, keto, and cabbage soup diets exist
(along with a hundred others) because few are able to stick with them long
term. These diets are good for ten-pound
weight loss in the first four weeks, followed by a gradual return to normal
eating patterns and putting the weight right back on.
The problem is two-fold – we
live in a society with lots of tasty, unhealthy food. More than that, few people can easily stick
with portion control or cut out foods that they know aren’t good for them.
Is it possible that Americans
value chocolate more than an ideal body weight?
<gasp!> I’m afraid so.
Jesus told a story about a
merchant who was seeking valuable pearls, “who, when he had found one pearl of
great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” (Matthew 13:45,46)
This is one of the parables of
the kingdom and in it, Jesus made clear that the kingdom is more valuable than
anything else. The problem is that many
people do not recognize its value. They
walk into a jeweler’s shop and see only another pearl, not something of immense
value that is worth obtaining.
More than that is the simple
question of whether the people who recognize its value are willing to surrender
everything in order to obtain it. It is
not enough to simply give lip-service to this, it takes everything we are and
have.
So many people say that they
want something – weight loss, financial freedom, or a deep connection with God
– but they are unwilling to give up what it would take to achieve that
goal. At the end of the day, the problem
isn’t that we don’t know what it would take to achieve our goals, it is that we
value the status quo more than those goals.
Whether it is side effects,
chocolate, or potatoes, the path to weight loss has many detours and those who
achieve it are those who value the goal more than the things they crave. How much more those who desire the kingdom?
