This week’s topic was Healthy Eating. We can go at this in a lot of different ways, but one thing I wanted to focus on was our motivation and discipline. I think it’s easy to simply and generally want to eat healthy, but what is it that will actually drive us to it. We have to clear our plates of other things first, and then we can fill it with the right things. That clearing of what isn’t good, is where I struggle. I want what I want, but if the Lord is my Shepherd, I am told I won’t want. How is that possible? And if I still do want…does that mean I have relinquished the Lord of Shepherding duties in that area? All things I considered in writing these notes.
1. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
No matter what we encounter in life, our circumstances CANNOT overshadow the truth of God’s Word. If then, we find we are in want, there is a conflict between our reality and the truth. The truth is unchanging, so it is our reality that needs questioning. Looking at the verse again, we can look at it as an “if-then” statement. IF the Lord is my Shepherd…THEN I shall not want. If, therefore, I find myself in want, is the Lord my Shepherd? There is where the rubber meets the road, and where we must find our footing before we can find our course.
- What areas of my life have I taken my free will too far?
- What areas of my life do I ignore the voice of the Shepherd?
It is not wrong to want food, it is not wrong to desire things, but to find ourselves “in want” is a different thing. I believe it speaks to two things. It speaks to need and it speaks to discontent.
- When I allow food to be my solution to discontent I am allowing food to be my Shepherd.
- When I take the role of Shepherd away from God, I take my protection into my own hands.
2. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
There are two statements in this verse signifying what the Shepherd is up to. He makes, and He leads. One has a connotation of force, when I MAKE my kids do something I am not giving them a choice. I think the intention here is to show that His provision is good. The emphasis is not so much on “makes” as it is the green pastures. He offers nothing less than life giving resources, protection, and rest. Sheep will not lie down if there is disturbance, fear of attack, or lack of food. When the Shepherd makes us lie down, He is providing a place for us that is free of what would cause us harm.
When He leads, I see Him walking ahead of us, always taking the path by the waters that are still. Still waters are untroubled. Much like the green pasture is full of life, still waters are full of peace. Sheep can find water on their own, and it will satisfy for a while, but it is up to a Shepherd to lead them to water that is pure and uncontaminated.
When we put food on the table we are in the position of “making” our kids eat something. Typically dinner does not mean buffet. It is important then to offer them a “green pasture” and not a dry plain. (Doesn’t this make you picture a bright salad vs. a beige pastry?) We are given the opportunity to provide what is free of harm, and filling for our family.
Our kids thirst. What are we offering that won’t hurt them? What we drink is possibly the most important thing we put in our bodies. When I see kids drinking Mt. Dew and their parents complaining they are ADHD, I don’t have a lot of compassion (I’m working on it), because we aren’t leading them to still waters. We are leading them to white water. Throwing sugars, caffeine, chemicals, carbonation, preservatives, dyes, and yes, even artificial sweeteners down our kid’s throats and asking them to act pure…is foolishness. We have a responsibility to lead them to still water, water that isn’t trying to wear away anything, water that is simply offering them life.
3. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Restoration is one of our Shepherd’s greatest triumphs. When a soul is restored, it is brought back to its original state of health. Our Shepherd is also our Creator. He envisioned a life for us and made us to fit into it, the rough circumstances of our life on earth and the sin we are born into works against that vision. His desire is always to restore us. Not to simply help us, but to put us on the path we were born to live out.
One of my greatest motivations in eating well, is to live in the restoration He has provided for me. I do not wish to take a hard left off the path simply because I’m not healthy enough to walk where His vision entrusts my soul to go. My desire is to fulfill His purposes for His Kingdom and to do it with strength of body and mind.
His leading is the path of righteousness and the goal is not so that I will run faster, live longer, lift more, feel better, jump higher, carry more, have more energy, have a sweeter glow, or get sick less often, it is for His Name’s sake.
I have friends who get up early, work painfully hard, and have great bodies to show for it, I have no qualms with that, but if they are doing those things for their life’s sake, it is in vain. We should keep our bodies fit, but for the purposes of His name, and that is what should be our first motivation and our first discipline each day. Not saying you shouldn’t run before you read your Bible, it’s not about your routine, it’s about your heart.
4. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
We don’t’ eat healthy food, because we fear disease. Disease and death can happen to anyone at any time. Though foods are very important in keeping us strong enough to handle the things that come against us, we need to stop looking to food as the answer and look to the rod and the staff.
This earth IS a valley of the shadow of death. All of it, all the time. We are at risk daily of its perils. We don’t stop using the interstate because people have been killed on I-65, and I don’t stop eating sugar because it literally feeds cancer. I DO drive carefully, and I DO eat sugar sparingly. I am not a slave to the fear of evil, whether it is evil that comes from careless drivers, or evil that comes from unhealthy food, I am going to live in comfort. The Shepherd’s rod and staff provide that comfort. His rod casts down the enemy, it measures my health and my character, and it is the defense of my life, because it is in the hand of my Protector. I am safe, not because I don’t do anything wrong, but because I am under the authority of what is Right. His staff is the gently leading guide. A Shepherd places the staff at the sheep’s side to direct its path. An unhealthy diet is not an evil to fear. David says in Psalm 27:1 “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Elsewhere, and repeatedly, he says that God alone is to be feared. We don’t fear God in a cowering way, we fear Him in a reverent, honoring way. And when we fear Him correctly, we are free to fear NOTHING else because nothing is comparable to Him.
Don’t hear me saying eat whatever you want, hear me saying God is a God of comfort that created food to be a comfort. Eat with His guidance and through the filter we established in week 1…CHOOSE LIFE! That is freedom!
5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
This picture of God preparing a table is truly beautiful. Feel free to imagine it in great splendor because that’s what He does. He spares nothing in His effort to offer us something fulfilling. He does not sit back and hope it’s good, He ensures it.
A Shepherd prepares the tablelands for his sheep. He observes, and prepares these areas for summer grazing and makes a trek to high altitudes to make sure well in advance that the area is secure. He looks for weeds that may be poisonous and he pulls them out, He scatters salts and minerals on the ground in anticipation of healthy sheep peacefully taking in what He is providing.
This is our table. Set up high, set well, set fruitfully, with beauty and safety in mind. Our enemies can see us, but they cannot touch us, because the Shepherd has placed us in safety from the violent. Psalm 12:5 shows David’s awareness of God’s guarding presence. “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the LORD; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.” ESV, the King James says the last part with particular color, “I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.” No matter how safe we are, the enemy doesn’t want us to feel safe. He growls, roars, and puffs at us, but if we can be assured and feel particularly secure when we are at the table of the Lord. Feasting on all His benefits.
The greatest danger in these tablelands for sheep is not the enemy with teeth, but rather the small and pesky enemy of insects. Summer breeds flies and flies love sheep. They attempt to lay eggs in their warm noses. Scab is another quiet enemy that come against the sheep in the tablelands. Sheep rub heads together as they graze and spread the disease to others in the flock.
I find it interesting that flies and rubbing heads together are the dangers that can kill a flock so easily. I think this equates to words, judgmental attitudes, mockery, scorn, and gossip in our own lives. We sit in our beautiful churches and spread ugliness between us. The verse that has me so convicted lately is Proverbs 17:5 “He who mocks the poor taunts his Maker; He who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished.” I see the poor here as those who have weaker minds, not weaker financial status. It is so easy to laugh at stupidity and I found myself doing it recently at Wal-mart when the poor cashier couldn’t use simple logic to solve a problem. I didn’t just smirk as it was happening, I told others about it later, and the Shepherd convicted me. He made that young girl, maybe He didn’t offer her my intellect, but you can bet she is a marvel at something, because He doesn’t waste His time. Who knows what beauty I was attempting to crush. It is not for me to scorn and mock, it is the opposite of what He intended for us and, much like gossip, it is a disease that desires to spread itself in destruction to all those I come in contact with.
The antidote to these dangers is anointing. The Holy Spirit poured out on us, resists those temptations for us. It secures us. Sheep that have been anointed against pests and disease, rest peacefully in the tableland and we can too. Our cups run over with His provision and grace. Our health is mastered by His righteousness.
6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Sheep are considered one of the most beneficial animals to raise, because, when pastured correctly, they provide new life and rejuvenation to the lands they graze. Their ability to walk the earth in health gives a lasting imprint and a redemptive quality to the land.
When we walk under the Shepherds provision, authority, security, direction and anointing, we are followed by goodness and mercy. He secures even what we leave behind by directing our forward steps. His goal is always the same…to be with us. He will not leave us, and He will not forsake us, because He desires us, and we are His.
Our diet is not our guide to better health, our Shepherd is. A great diet still ultimately leads to death on earth, but a Shepherd’s leading will ultimately be rewarded with access to the house of the Lord for eternity. We are prized, we are loved, and we are chosen. We are so, so blessed!