Vortex of Awesome

This was some great advice so I will start with this old post:

“It’s January 2nd. How is everyone doing with their New Year’s Resolutions? If you’re like me, you are on track with somethings and already failed on some of the others. Why is it we can succeed with some things and completely fail with others? Maybe it has something to do with that old saying, “You are what you eat.”

That old proverb has a lot of truth behind it. We see the results of its truth in our own bodies. If we eat a bunch of junk, then our bodies turn to mushy junk. If we eat “clean” then our bodies respond kindly and become hard and slim. One of the most common new year’s resolutions is to eat better because we understand this correlation so well, but why can’t we stick to the logic and just stay with the “clean” diet or many of the other goals we set? 

The reason may be that we take the “you are what you eat” proverb as a literal lesson only concerned about diet. I believe this phrase goes way beyond the obvious. When it says eat, it is referring to consuming. Consumption goes far beyond what you stuff in your pie-hole. Consumption involves all of your senses. 

What have you been feeding your senses lately? What have your eyes and ears been fed? Has it been mind-numbing television? What has your sense of touch been fed? Has its main source of nourishment been the feeling of a soft couch caressing it to a light coma? What has your nose gorged on? Is the sweet aromas of rich fatty foods? 

If you are what you eat, then no wonder you aren’t getting anywhere with your new goals. Your senses are being bombarded with everything that contradicts your plans. If you want to achieve your “new you” you have to change what you are feeding yourself. If want to lose weight then you have to get away from the food, get off your ass and work. You have to turn the television off and turn on some music or something that will inspire you to move. If you want to do anything different, then you have to do the same thing. Turn your attention to learning how to achieve that goal. Read about it. Study it. Live it. Turn off the distractions. Feed yourself on nothing but what is going to make you successful and guard against anything that will hinder it. 

You cannot expect to feed yourself the same things you have always fed on and expect to change. You have to feed on what you want to become. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.”

Wow! Good stuff, right? Now let’s apply this to our walk with Christ. There are many verses in the bible that apply to this type of mentality of “You are what you eat.” Here are just a few.:

^{Joshua 1:8 ESV}

 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

1 Peter 2 ESV

A Living Stone and a Holy People
2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
    a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
⁷ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”^[a]
8 and
“A stone of stumbling,
    and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

1 Timothy 6:20 ESV
²⁰ O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,”

We find these references to living a new life and putting off the old and putting on the new all throughout the Bible, yet many of us Christian’s act and look no different than the rest of the world. Why is that? Because “we are what we eat.” We consume the same things that the rest of the world is consuming on a daily basis. We listen to the same trashy music; we watch the same trashy shows and movies and enjoy the same trashy news and biased commentaries. We are feeding ourselves trash constantly and then wonder why we cannot be “more like Jesus.”

I wrote the original post as a motivational message and if you take the words and act on them you will succeed in any endeavor you put your mind to. This is what the successful people do for the most part. They are driven and singularly focused on their objectives and do not let anything get in the way including family, friends and especially not leisurely activities like TV and social media.

We need to apply this type of mentality to our walk with Christ. Being a Christian is not equivalent to being an American or a republican or democrat. It is not something that only comes up when it is appropriate or in certain situations when action is required. It is a new existence. You are supposed to born again with a new mind and heart devoted to God, yet we act like it is just something that we pull out in emergencies or when we want to make a point and live the rest of our lives consuming and exuding garbage.

To be a Christian is to be a disciple which roots from the same word as the word discipline. We are to keep ourselves in check and stay focused of the things of God so that we will be the true “image bearers” on God.

Being an American Christian is much like being an overweight, tobacco chewing, donut eating personal trainer. Who would hire this guy? No one. “But he has all the certifications and can write up personalized diet plans and can really preach a great motivational speech.” Who cares! If he is not walking the walk, then why should you buy the talk? If he cannot live it and you do not see any results of his knowledge in his own life, then why would you believe that what he is selling will work for you?

The average Christian in American, including myself, is the spitting image of that overweight, tobacco chewing, donut eating personal trainer. We are consuming nothing but garbage and it shows. We are telling others how great our God is while there is no evidence of it in our own lives.

So, what are you eating? Are you eating all of the garbage that the world is spoon feeding you or are you eating from the hand of God? Are you remaining in His Word? Matthew 4:4 NIV says, “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

We need to go on a radical diet and exercise plan. One not of food and physical exercise but one of feeding and training of the mind, heart and spirit. It is time to clean out the fridge and pantry of all the garbage: negative social media, trash television and movies, and high calorie music. It is time to replace those things with God’s Word, worship music, and entertainment and education that edifies God.