From Martyn Casserley…
There used to be a phrase I heard often when I first became a Christian; ‘counting the cost’. It was usually delivered with serious faces, often nodding in a knowing fashion, when talking about people who were close to giving their lives to Jesus, but retained a certain reticence due to the trouble it could cause. How are they doing? You’d ask. Counting the cost, nodded the reply. Ah, you’d say, seriously.
Now, many years later, there is still a cost to be counted, and Christianity is a serious business (well, some of the time), but as I have matured in age I feel that I have grown in ways that have changed my usage of the term. In 2015 if I mention the phrase it’s far more likely that I’m talking about calories, as most of my increase has focussed on the stomach department.
It’s a curious thing to have your metabolism suddenly go from a sugar rushed gazelle to a sloth with low ambition, and the only way you find out is when you mistake your belly in the morning for a spare pillow that someone slipped into the bed overnight. It certainly wakes you up.
To counter the onset of advanced chubbiness I recently turned to a dietary app on my phone, into which I record all the food I eat. The app tells me how many calories each thing has, and subtracts it from my begrudgingly agreed daily allowance. In truth, it’s absolutely shocking. Things that seemed innocent pleasures, say a packet of crisps, are suddenly revealed for the calorific charlatans they really are. For the first few days I literally thought I was going to die. How can people live like this? Surely these figures are wrong. How the hell can a crusty white roll be nearly 300 calories? It’s mainly air inside!
But slowly, with advanced Bear Grylls-style survival techniques kicking in, I began to adjust. Instead of throwing that chocolate bar inside me without a thought, I took the time to consider its worth, what it would cost me in terms of other food, and on most occasions ended up putting it back in the cupboard. As a result my body has adjusted, hunger is less of an issue, and weight is slowly coming off. It’s not easy, but knowing the facts about the things I’m consuming gives me the chance to make better decisions that will help me reach my goal.
As we go through our teaching on fasting, this is a great time to take stock of where we spend our limited points – be they calories, hours, or pounds – and if that is helping us in our relationship with God, and each other? Removing things from our lives can be very hard at first, leaving a hungry gap, but it gets easier in time. Why not keep score in the next few days? It could make a difference in the long run that really counts.