If God Asks Me to Refuse a Donut (Part Three): Denying Myself vs. Tricking Myself

When we go on a diet, what are we most afraid of? Being hungry! No one wants to go around feeling hungry all the time. The holy grail of dieting is to eat fewer calories without feeling deprived – without letting your mind and stomach know that you are eating fewer calories.

WeightWatchers seems to agree that hunger is the enemy. Common slogans include “Don’t deprive yourself,” and “You don’t have to deny yourself all the time!” Of course, WeightWatchers has tons of tricks for masking hunger. For example:

• Drink lots of water. The volume will physically fill up your stomach.

• Don’t give up your favorite foods (because then you would feel deprived!) Swap non-fat and sugar-free foods for their higher-calorie versions.

• And one of my favorites: “Chop high-calorie foods like cheese and chocolate into smaller pieces. It will seem like you're getting more than you actually are.”

Are you taking notes? :) When I was on WeightWatchers, I bought into all of the tricks. I enjoyed drinking diet soda and chewing sugarless gum. The soda provided a “full” feeling, and the gum kept my mouth busy. Sometimes I would go through a pack of gum a day, especially when driving in traffic.

But even though my mouth was busy, and even though my stomach was “full,” I wouldn’t describe them as satisfied. It seemed like, rather than curbing hunger, I was training my mouth to crave artificial sweeteners. At any rate, I certainly wasn’t training them to be content.

The Bible views hunger in a radically different way from WeightWatchers. It calls the hungry “blessed”! “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6; Luke 6:21).

Jesus knew hunger. He fasted in the desert for 40 days, and the Bible tells us that he was hungry (Luke 4:2). The devil tempted him by challenging him to change a stone into bread. Jesus replied by quoting Scripture: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).

Christians have nothing to fear from hunger. (Even famine cannot separate us from the love of Christ, Romans 8:35). Its pangs are messengers, reminding us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and encouraging us to feed on the word of God. By embracing hunger, we share in some small way the sufferings of our brothers and sisters who are persecuted for the gospel.

Jesus does not sugar-coat his diet: we are called to deny ourselves. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). The grace of God teaches us to say “no” to our worldly passions – we don’t have to trick them or appease them. (Titus 2:11-12).

Recently I went to a breakfast presentation. I did not know quite what to expect, but in the spirit of “God will provide,” I did not eat beforehand. As it turned out, breakfast consisted of a small table with fruit and pastry. The room was very crowded, and there was no polite way for me to make my way over to the breakfast table before the presentation. Let's just say the presentation itself did nothing to distract me from my stomach.

Praise God, I got to experience hunger! The feeling itself was not particularly pleasant, but it reminded me to meditate on the Word of God. Before, on WeightWatchers, such an experience would have left me anxious. Instead, I was able to experience a measure of peace. (I am a work in progress; I hope next time I will experience only peace!)

More to come.