Consequences

    I'm doing really well in some areas of this experiment - all but one, in fact.  It's the area I struggle with the most.  But as I've been teaching my fifth grade class - though God forgives sin, there are still consequences for our choices.

     I woke up with acid reflux this morning.  That hasn't happened in a year.  Over the last year, I had lost 45 pounds and dropped from a size 20 to a size 16.  I was walking 8 miles a day, eating only chicken, fish, fruit, vegies, and eggs, and drinking only water and milk.  I was able to go off of blood pressure and thyroid medication and was in the best health I'd been in in a long time.  I felt great.  Then little by little I started adding things to my diet.  I injured my knee and couldn't go on my walks.  Prior to starting the experiment, I was right back to eating all kinds of junk food, buying a soda every morning at Circle K and hadn't started exercising again.

     The Lord put it on my heart as part of the experiment to start eating right and walking again. He was asking me to deny the flesh, and live the healthy life He wants me to have.  I quit buying junk food when I grocery shopped (but still ate from the candy bowl at work and the banana bread and donuts that co-workers bring in).  I stopped buying a polar pop from Circle K on my way to work every morning (but would get fast food on the way home for dinner and of course order a soda to go with it).  Yesterday I spent the entire day sorting through my house and marking stuff for a yard sale. It was a big job so I went and got a $5 pizza from Little Caesar's for dinner... and I woke up with acid reflux.

     Ironically (God knows how to make a point), I have been teaching my 5th grade Sunday School class about consequences.  King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed.  God forgave him, but there were still consequences.  The product of that sin, David's first born son, would die.  This is the illustration I used to explain consequences to the kids:  Let's say every time you sin, you have to drive a nail into a post.  When you've repented the sin and God forgives you, you can remove the nail.  When all is said and done, what is left?  A post full of holes.  The sin is gone, but the post is not the same...there are consequences to our actions.

     So, is it a sin to eat junk food when you know God has told you to do differently?  Consider James 4:17: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."   Of course, I've repented.  I've promised to do better.  The acid reflux is the hole in my post.

     I knew this experiment wasn't going to be a walk in the park.  It's a radical lifestyle change.  But with God's help, I know I will succeed. At the end of it, I may have a post full of holes, but thanks to Jesus, it will no longer contain nails.