As this year quickly draws to a close, I have tried to afford myself the opportunity to reflect on all the happenings of the past year: the joys, struggles, heartaches, triumphs, and simple occurrences of life. By the grace of God, I find myself joyful at the Lord’s sustaining hand in our lives.
We have actually been in one state longer than a year, and have no plans to move. We were blessed to purchase a small farm home at an auction a few months ago. My baby required a minor surgery, but through prayer and wonderful doctors, has recovered amazingly well. My children are growing, learning more and more with each passing day. They are a beautiful vine adorning our home.
In the midst of all these reasons to be thankful, I must also reflect on an area of struggle and difficulty. Namely, my idolatrous trust that food is our medicine and guarantee of health. My idol has been greatly called into question two times in the past year: once with my week-long hospitalization for a nursing infection which triggered a case of rhabdomyolysis (rapid muscle breakdown which stormed my kidneys with toxins), and another time with the recent leukemia diagnosis of our friends’ son.
Why These Afflictions?
I cannot with integrity say that I eat perfectly, but the staples of our home are real foods, traditionally prepared, and heartily eaten. Our days are filled with plenty of sun and activity, and I can probably count on one hand the times we have eaten out this year. Our family friends, following a similar dietary lifestyle, have a viable working farm on their property and the added benefit of fresh spring water.
In light of these things, I have found myself questioning: why, when seeking wisdom and attempting to be good stewards, does sickness afflict us? Why was I taken from my family for a week to lie in a hospital bed? And on a much larger scale, why is the son of our friends in the hospital, his young bride of only a year devotedly by his side? Things were done right — this should not happen. Yet, they did happen and are happening.
Real food and a healthy lifestyle are not guarantees of health; they are NOT a Savior.
Every Breath Comes From Him
The sooner I realize this, the better I will be. Yet I often put my trust in feeding my family well, even though I have come to understand that the ability and strength to feed my family comes from the Lord. My being, my breath, every single breath of those little people and the amazing man at my table, comes from our good Maker.
Would my work be in vain if sickness or death confronted our family? As difficult as it is for me to say it, no! By the grace of God, I have learned from various experiences that physical wasting is not to be most feared. We should fear spiritual wasting. Our bodies, which by the very nature of death proclaim that they will not last forever, are wasting away, but our spirit marches on forever.
We are in a sad state if we rest all our hope upon our health, and neglect the spirit which will exist now and forever!
The Purpose of Real Food
So then I ask, what is the purpose of real food and all the time necessary to prepare it? In the end, the Lord ordains our every breath and does not guarantee good health.
The purpose is: stewardship. Beginning with how we grow or acquire our food, and ending with how we choose to use it for nourishment, stewardship of our food results in, by the grace of God, the physical sustenance we need. And with good health, we can glorify our Creator.
Real Food is a Tool
While in the hospital, I could not enjoy the cafeteria-style food. I nearly cringed with each bite, knowing that the food was processed over and over again, and could not heal me. When the son of our friends was admitted to the hospital, his family rushed to acquire raw foods to cleanse his blood. Food is a tool for health, and I believe it is a very powerful one. However, it is not a guarantee of health.
As I prepare to say goodbye to this year, I realize that I have learned from the good and the difficult. Whether in preparing food or caring for our children, I pray with joy and hope that my end goal might be to bring glory to God. I pray that I will not stake all trust in good health or nutritious food.
Our Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will see me — all of us — through.
Merry Christmas, everyone! What thoughts are you pondering in your heart as we celebrate our Savior’s birth?
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You are not alone in the struggle over this idol. How presumptuous of me to think that I’m impervious to the mighty little virus or a cold or the flu or any kind of infection. He is in TOTAL control. Thanks for the reminder.
Thank you, Martha. By the grace of God, may we see our dependence upon the good Lord in a greater way with each passing day!
Beautiful! Thanks so very much and Merry Christmas!
Glory be to God. Blessings to you this Christmas time as well!
Thank you for saying that Tracey – WE cannot save ourselves with anything! WE cannot do it. We can respect these bodies He has given us and eat the healthy food He has provided while we wait on Him to save our souls. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Nancylee
Beautifully said!! This is what I have been thinking lately also. Just started my family on GAPs a month ago, I found myself, instead of spending a first waking hour reading His words and meditating, I was cooking and more cooking until I was late for work. Instead of writing to my friends about God and His revelation I have been talking about real food and natrual remedies… Yet, a still small voice is saying…don’t trust them, Jesus is the only Savior. Love this! Bless you
Thank you, Annie Li. Finding a balance is often times so difficult- a daily struggle for me. If I do not begin my day with the Word of God, I find myself struggling with this balance all the more. I pray that the Lord might bless you with His peace and wisdom in ordering your day. God be with you as your make this transition and take care of so many other things!
Agreed, Nancy. WE, as you said, can do nothing apart from the grace and mercy of God. I say this, but yet how often I fail by trusting in myself. With each day, may there be progress in realizing that we are the creation, not the creator. God bless you and yours this Christmas time. : )
Tracey, such a wise reminder! Thank you so much for sharing this. It’s so easy when you’re battling health issues and start to find some relief through changing your diet to come to trust in what you’re eating rather than remembering to trust in the Lord. I am ashamed to admit that I’ve experienced this firsthand and God has continually used my battles with health to remind me that it is He who gives me hope and strength. So I am so excited and overjoyed to see you share this message. Let’s keep our trust where it belongs, in the Lord – the giver and sustainer of life and let’s also put our hope in the new life to come through Him – where we’ll have bodies made perfect and glorified in Him, Our Savior Jesus Christ. Blessings and gratitude, Kelly
Thank you, Kelly- your words and thoughts regarding this are wonderful! : )
Wow, this has really spoken to me today. Thank you so much! I need to write down what you’ve said and put it in my journal so I can remind myself again. Such wisdom. xxx
Praise be to God. : )
Well said. Thank you
: )))
Thank you for posting this! 2013 has a been a difficult year for many of my friends… one of whom lost their 18 mo. old son to cancer. But God is always with us and I must put my faith and trust in Him and remember that love always wins, even over death, there is love. And eating real food is more about stewardship of God’s creation than it is about making the food my great healer, as only God can do that.
Amen, Jenny. I will pray for the family who lost their little boy. God be with you!
I really needed that this morning!! It’s quite easy to get caught up in the reading and cooking/preparing all of these nourishing foods And forget , or in my case, wait till the end of the day to read my bible, only to be too tired for it!!! If we don’t start the day out right, it usually doesn’t happen later. Oh, how I miss seeing to guys and hope that one day our paths will cross again!! So glad to hear you guys got a farm and are happy! God Bless you and your family:) Erin Saylor
Oh, Erin – so good to hear from you!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for writing! We look with such fondness on all the time we were able to share with you and your family- you are doing good work, and I pray that the Lord might give you the strength to continue in it- in His timing. I would love to hear how all is going with you and your family. I will send you an email soon. God bless you as well, Erin!
Oh my, even in the fitness world I encounter the same idolatry. I suppose it exists in every obsession… “If I just read enough books, I will know enough to avoid every bad situation”… but knowledge can’t protect us. “If I just exercise enough, I will avoid heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity”… but I’ve seen elite athletes come down with those very things thanks to genetic time bombs in their own bodies. “If I heal my core and fix my diastasis {my specialty} then my whole life will fall into place”… but so many have found their identity in that same injury and have trouble moving forward even once they are healed.
The harsh truth is that we aren’t promised a good life even if we do believe in Jesus as a savior. The bible says the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. And another quote I saw recently in my FB feed said something like, “Thinking that because you are good person, hard times won’t come is like thinking that because you are a vegetarian, the bull won’t charge at you.”
So do we stop being good? Do we stop eating healthy? Do we stop believing? No!!!! We persist so that at the proper time we reap a harvest if we don’t give up!
Wow… maybe I should turn this into a blog! LOL!
Sadly, how easy we find ourselves making idols out of everything under the sun, instead of turning our trust and focus unto the Lord! Like you said, may we persist, so that we might be sanctified and reap a harvest for our good Lord.
very well said! amen!
: ) Thank you.
Hi everybody
Happy New year to everyone and God Bless us through his wisdom and protect us from deadly disease of canacer. I lost two members of my family although we had good diet in africa but it was due to stress because I lost my father at very young age.
Today going through your email I learned a lot and please keep sending me ok.
regards
almas.
I am sorry for the loss you have experienced! May the Lord comfort you in your grieving. God be with you.
The Resurrection power that raised JESUS from the dead is alive in me right now quickening my mortal body! Can’t remember where the actual scripture is found, at the moment.
Good article.
The horse before the cart. JESUS first in everything.
Thank you- God bless you!
Thanks so much Tracey! We just started our Gaps journey a few days ago and although God very clearly lead us in this direction, I find myself constantly struggling to balance my control over our diet and His control over our lives. I would really like to find a verse that would help me to focus my mind on His power to heal and not my efforts.
I am definitely working hard to make sure that I tell people that God is the healer of our bodies whether through the diet or not.
This one line that you wrote was so helpful to me, “physical wasting is not to be most feared. We should fear spiritual wasting.”
Thanks for sharing your heart and encouraging us!
Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comment!! Your words were a great encouragement to me.
Based on what you said, I thought I might share something that the Lord has been working in my heart that I pray might be an encouragement to you. I am reading in Exodus right now- where the Lord just delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. They are in the wilderness, grumbling for lack of food, wanting to go back to Egypt where they had food. Moses pleads to the Lord on their behalf and the Lord provides manna from heaven.
However, the Lord does not provide one huge lump amount of manna- he provides it daily, and the people of God are only to glean enough to sustain them for that day alone. As soon as they gathered more- it rotted. I wonder if this is symbolic of our walks before the Lord. We are to glean from the Word of God daily, daily going to him for our sustenance, and he will add all unto that. Anything we try to do apart from the Lord’s will becomes a stench. If my focus is first upon food, or fill in the blank with anything else, I am mistaken. First, it is to be upon the Lord and all things will be added unto that.
So, knowing that I struggle in this area, I must constantly ask myself, where is my hope, where is my joy- is what I am doing whether it be in making food, cleaning, gardening, etc… taking from that joy or hope- if so, I need to stop and regroup or all of my work will be in vain.
Some thoughts from a sinner saved by grace alone…….
God bless you in your journey, Sharon.
Amen! And I still struggle 🙁 I wonder then if I should just eat like the masses. Yeah, I tend to swing from one extreme to the other. I cook from scratch almost everyday due to allergies manifested by almost all in the family. But despite me doing that everyone is still struggling mightily with the awful allergies. It is depressing to say the least.
Resting and trusting in Him is tough! And yet so necessary!
Time, it takes time. May the Lord give you patience and perseverance according to His will. I will pray for you. : )
Time, it takes time. May the Lord give you patience and perseverance according to His will. I will pray for you. : )
Thanks be to God! May you have a blessed New Year!
And yet, I’ve seen remarkable things come through with foods and supplements. A middle aged woman off her RA drugs, a son healing from esophageal legions after years of finding no answers at the Mayo Clinic…
But remember – it is possible to be cured and not healed, likewise, we can be healed but not cured. So, it is always wise to seek refuge in God who offers healing to those who seek it.
Yes, great point- if we fail to give credit to the one who cures us, we are not truly healed, and likewise, if we see the Lord’s hand and sovereignty in our afflictions, we are healed by His blood, but may not necessarily be cured of our afflictions in this life. Great, great thoughts. Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
What a great article.
Because my family does eat so healthily, it was quite a shock to me when my little boy was diagnosed with a very serious illness earlier this year. Even though I helped support his medical treatment with a different diet, supplements, herbs, and spices, he did not improve. Another shock. The Lord drove home the fact that *I* was not in control, but *needed* to trust HIM *completely* with something that was so far out of my control. It is amazing that when I did *do* that finally, that is when we saw a GREAT improvement. Although I DID pray A LOT for my son to get better, fear motivated me to do the things I did. He wants it *all*. He wants us to completely surrender everything. I thought I had, but I found out that I thought He still needed my help. Yes, all of those things are excellent, but without the Lord’s hand in it, it is all futile.
Thank you for sharing! I do hope your son is better!
I find myself often needing to reflect on the verse: – “perfect peace casts out all fear” because my tendency is to fear and not trust or pray to our good Lord. Sometimes, I think, we are our own worst enemies.
I do hope the improvement with your son continues and that the Lord’s hand may uphold you and your family during this trial.
God bless!
What a great post. Yes as another “foodie” I can easily fall prey to the idol worship of a real food diet and forget who really holds my health and that of my family in His hand. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thank you, Jennifer. May the Lord sanctify us where we fall short. God bless you and yours! : )
Dear Tracey,
I loved your article and it is a great reminder to us of our Divine creation. I am a believer as well and over the last 20 years, after going through a major healing crisis, began studying the natural design of the body. A great reminder and something, as believers, that we have forgotten is that God created our bodies to self heal. So why do we still have symptoms? The body is created to respond to everything about us, what we put in the body (food is our medicine), the environment, how we choose to live and especially our every thought, feeling and emotion. As with the example of a fight/flight response, our perception (feeling, emotion) to each situation is biologically connected to a specific organ, tissue or gland to help us in our time of need. When the active conflict is over the body will have to restore itself (heal). Symptoms may include, fatigue, a cold, fever, swelling, etc. and the need to rest (specific to the conflict). Therefore, a symptom 95% of the time is in a healing phase from a situation you have resolved. By eating pure, whole food regularly, and living naturally, we assist the body in its natural design to self heal which allows us to go through the healing phase with the energy needed to heal. For further teaching, of God’s natural design of the body, write me and I will share this remarkable natural science that was the answer to my questions. God’s love and blessings to you, Michele
Hello Michele,
I love what you are sharing and am thankful that we are wonderfully and fearfully made! I looked over your website and see that you are doing some great work- apparently the Lord brought you through quite a journey and is now allowing you to use that to help others. : ) I would love to know more about what you consider living naturally and what that might look like- also, I have been pondering the effects of stress of the body and the toll it truly takes on our health.
God bless you and the work of your hands!
Excellent post! Like you, we choose to eat well, but age and scripture has taught us that we live in a fallen world that does not always have an easy fix. We also live under God’s providential hand, so “teach us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom.” (Ps. 90).
Kathy
Hi Kathy! We love that Psalm in our home- thank your for bringing that to mind! God bless you!
Wow, hard hitting.
There is no denying that the Lord was speaking to me.
Thanks for sharing.
Praise God! : ))))
A very interesting perspective. I too like to think that healthy eating is the way forward. However there are so many different opinions on what constitutes a healthy diet. Should it be grass fed beef and raw milk, or maybe raw food completely. Some swear by an alkaline vegetarian diet. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. If you read the Metabolic Diet you will understand why this is such a complex issue. Of course there are always environmental issues that we can have no control over. The other variable is stress and how we deal with it.
Whilst I respect your belief in a saviour, I find it rather random as to why some might be afflicted with illness and others should not. While I do believe in a God who is good I also believe that we are on this earth to learn our own lessons and adversity is often the way we do that.
On another note, I am reading this on my Kindle Fire , your pop out form completely blocked my ability to read your blog. The only way I could get rid of it was to sign up for your newsletter. I am already a member so made up an email address. Thought you might like to know
Hi Janet,
Thank you for letting us know about the pop up form issue. We’ve tried a different version that should prevent that from happening. If you have a minute could you give it a try and see if it works better for you?
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Hello Janet,
Thanks for your thoughts on this! And yes, I agree- there are truly so many various forms of “diets” out there. I like what Michael Pollan says, and although I will probably mistake one word or another, the gist is: eat food, not too much, and mostly plants.
Thank you for your graciousness in respecting my beliefs. I appreciate respectful honesty in all matters! And although we might disagree, about randomness vs. sovereignty of God in all matters, I think there is a conversation to be had, that would probably last a lifetime. : ) Sanctification through trials is definitely one way that the Lord deepens our knowledge of Him!
Again, thank you for your thoughts. I pray that the Lord might bless you!
This post really puts things into perspective. Having a young daughter with ulcerative colitis, and doing all I can to “heal” her…well, it has been overwhelming. Thank you for repositioning my focus on the Creator and allowing Him to control the situation. I can do what I can do, but I am not the “Healer”. Jesus is!
Amen, Karen. May the Lord bless your journey with your daughter. God be with you as you care for her needs as only a loving parent blessed by the Lord can.