A Glutton for Punishment

I told you I was going to write about gluttony.

Between the amount of food America consumed on Thursday and the amount of stuff (yes, I just used the word "stuff", which I will define as material goods that have little to no importance - mainly the result of impulse shopping incited by the atmosphere and advertisements of the occasion) people bought on Friday, I think the relevance of this post does not need discussing. Do not worry, though. I am not writing to condemn or judge. I, too, ate way too much on Thursday. Also, I ended up shopping on Friday - granted, I didn't wake up (or stay up) at an ungodly hour of the day to storm a retail store. I went at a perfectly decent time: 3:00PM and ended up with 2 DVDs, shower gel, and shampoo.

Concerning gluttony, Frederick Buechner (can't you tell that I'm reading Buechner at this time?) said this:

"A glutton is one who raids the icebox for a cure for spiritual malnutrition" (35).

The quote caught my attention because I believe that there is some truth to it. As humans, our natural tendency is to overcompensate. Even if the real problem is something completely different, we run to things that we know and have control over (usually the tangible things) and excessively obsess. Why do you think we come up with terms like "emotional eaters" and "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?" Ever see those romantic movies where the heroine have just gotten her heart broken and decides to make it better by eating ice cream right out of its container? It's just like that.

Most of all, we (this is me speaking on behalf of all humankind; I try not to generalize, but this is pretty typical according to my observations) crave the intangibles like love, acceptance, confidence, encouragement, intimacy, etc., but when we don't know where to go to get those (and of course, the people we expect to give us these things disappoint us one way or another - they just fall short), we turn to other controllable things to overcompensate. We turn to things like emotional eating, not eating, relationships (a.k.a relying on one person to fulfill everything - yikes!), workaholic-ness (this word does not exist), sex with the wrong people for the wrong reason, super frantic religious piety, and much much more. We have the tendency to look for the right thing in all the wrong places.

The cure for spiritual malnutrition is Jesus Christ.


This might be scary for some people (or, really, everyone - only some of us admits this) because we can't be in control. We can't demand grace or love from him. We don't deserve the it. We can't earn it either. These things have to be given freely. The most amazing thing is this: he did give it freely.

For starters, "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18). He didn't stop at just that, though. He came "that [you, me, everyone really] may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). That thing your soul crave for - he wants to give that to you.

So I guess it's time to look at our life and get the bigger picture, not just the view one has when one's head is inside the icebox.

Bring on the pumpkin pie...

Thanksgiving is not necessarily a Christian holiday. It is an American holiday. Turkey, stuffing, green bean casseroles, pumpkin pie, are staples of a Thanksgiving meal that I happen to love. Thanksgiving is also a day where people eat their weight in food. (I will refrain from making any attempts to discuss gluttony until the day after Black Friday.)

Giving thanks, though, is a very Christian concept. Whenever we participate in communion (you know those minuscule plastic cups filled with grape juice and matza crackers that makes you think of getting an actual meal you can taste), we are supposed to remember Christ and what he has done for us. Communion is sometimes also called the Eucharist, which is a Greek word that means thanksgiving. Wait, what? Apparently the early church started thanksgiving meal, without the turkey and stuffing I would assume. Actually, Jesus himself started the first thanksgiving meal. In his book, Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner wrote how "at the Last Supper itself Christ gave thanks, and on their part, Christians have nothing for which to be more thankful" (63).

I will take this time to express some of the things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for the hope that I have in Christ. He took the pains of becoming human (along with all of the junk that comes with this limited existence), and suffered a criminal's death. He rose again from the dead (this part is important, folks, leaving this part out is similar to leaving the punchline of a joke out...) He defeated death, the most mysterious and feared enemy of mankind. (Again, I am reminded of the Harry Potter quote: "The last enemy to be conquered is death.") I have hope for this life and what lies beyond because of Jesus. He lived a human life to the fullest (so I have hope that my life is worth something), and he points to hope for eternity that lies beyond. I'm getting frustrated because it turns out to be slightly more difficult to explain this. I do want to say this, though. I have hope because I don't have to live this life just for myself. That's a relief.

I am thankful for my parents. I'm talking my actual parents (the ones living approximately 8,000 miles away) and the ones dubbed my "American parents." My parents raised me up in the Lord. My dad has set a great example for my life. Two actually. The first one is how he loves me. (I'm tearing up as I'm writing this.) When I try to fathom God (which is quite an impossible undertaking, there), I think of a more amazing version of my dad. (Note: my dad is human, thus having flaws and imperfection.) My dad also set an example for me in how to serve God. His dedication, his crazy-almost-reckless faith, and his love for God encourages myself to follow in his footsteps. My mother is the most amazing person I have ever met. She is the toughest (and sometimes most stubborn) person I know. She trusts God and then charges at life. I wouldn't be the person I am today and I wouldn't be where I am today if not for her. I am also thankful for my "American parents." I seriously have no idea what I did or said to have them invite me in and made me one of their own. They didn't have to. But they did.

I am thankful for my friends. When I say friends, these aren't just the people who take the time to hang out with me, although they don't mind having 3-hour lunches or 4-hour coffee with me. These are the people that showed how much they cared for me. These are the people I trust with my life. I am a very self-sufficient person, and I pride myself in that. With the aforementioned friends (a.k.a. people I trust with my life), I actually let myself be vulnerable. I trust they have my back. I trust they will smack me if I'm doing something I'm not supposed to be doing. These people are invested. Again, I don't know why, but hey, I don't have all of the answers.

I'm thankful about more things that I won't mention in detail right now because it's 1:55 AM and I have to get my beauty sleep in order to consume my weight in food tomorrow.

Oh and I am most definitely thankful for shoes. Enough said.

Back to the concept of communion or eucharist. The early church's idea of communions (eucharist, Lord's Supper, whatever term you want to use to describe it) was having a meal together. I think Buechner did a great job explaining this, so I'll let him explain:

To eat any meal together is to meet at the level of our most basic need. It is hard to preserve your dignity with butter on your chin, or to keep your distance when asking for the tomato ketchup... To eat this particular meal together is to meet at the level of our most basic humanness, which involves our need not just for food but for each other...

It's difficult to have a meal with someone and not have a bit of that self-defense wall crumbling down, especially when you're eating a chicken fajita burrito from Chipotle. Also, eating together is a form of telling someone you trust them. I trust that the person who brought the mashed potatoes didn't put poison in it and try to poison me. Or, a less deadly example would be me trusting you to not make fun of me eating my chicken fajita burrito.

So, where am I going with this? Ah, yes! Two things I hope you will remember as you feast on the over-abundance of pumpkin delicacies.

#1. Thanksgiving meal (and any meal you share with fellow Jesus-followers) is a chance to remember and thank him for the sacrifice that has given us life.

#2. Eating Thanksgiving meal together is a time to share and build relationships. And let that very proper I am an island wall crumble just a little bit.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Love,
T