The Shepherd and our hunger

While some of us overeat, others of us suffer from the compulsion to not eat. I have been in both places in my life. When I was in my early teens, I went through a time of not eating enough - to the point where certain regular functions of my body shut down, because there wasn't enough nutrition for them to continue. I spent my days wrestling with my hunger, keeping myself to no more than a certain number of calories, and exercising constantly. Neither overeating nor starving is natural or healthy. To come back to center, our broken and confused thought processes must be gently healed and helped back onto a more normal track.

For me, I found help as I meditated on the image of the shepherd and his sheep. As a Christian, that is a very meaningful image to me. Jesus spoke often of the good shepherd, and identified himself as such.

A good shepherd would not take his sheep to a lovely, lush pasture, then punish them for eating the succulent grass, would he? And if a sheep refused to eat good grass, the shepherd would worry, because he'd know something was wrong.

Okay, so it would be a lot easier for us if all we ate was grass, and we had a shepherd right by us every minute to show us the best grass and the freshest, coolest water. But, in a way, we do have that guide - "Lo, I am with you always."

Here's how I play the part of obedient sheep to my loving Shepherd.

I trust Him to provide me the food I need.

"Give us this day our daily bread." He taught us to pray like that. He wants us to trust that He will provide what we need, day by day, hour by hour. This was very meaningful to me, because as I was growing up, well-meaning people would take food away from me or scold me for eating. Naturally, that only made me want it even more! I've had to learn that there will be more food tomorrow. I do not have to eat enough today for three meals. I can eat a little bit today and a little bit more tomorrow. That took a lot of practice for me to learn. Now that I have, I'm more detached about food, and less likely to try to eat it all at one sitting.

I trust that He wants me to eat the best.

By this, I do not mean that we should try or expect to have haute cuisine three meals a day! What it means to me is that I only eat what I truly want and what truly appeals to me.

I have a dear friend who has a wonderful figure. I've eaten lunch with her many, many times, and have had the chance to observe her closely as she goes about consuming her food. There are three things that she does which have impressed me:

First, she examines her food closely. For example, she looks over an apple, carefully cutting away any brown spots, taking the stem off, and just checking it all very carefully.

Second, she takes her time and makes quite a ceremony out of preparing it, cutting it up, carefully cutting away the part with the seeds, etc. (By the time she has all four sections carefully laid out and is ready for her first bite, I've usually finished mine!)

The third thing is, if she takes a bite of the apple which she has so carefully examined and prepared, and it isn't any good - mealy, or something - she just puts it aside and doesn't eat it.

All three of these practices have helped me understand how they help her keep her slim and attractive figure.

By closely looking over anything she's going to eat, she's ensuring that it's wholesome, fresh and good. It's okay to do that. Our Shepherd would want us to.

Her deliberate, attentive approach to preparing even a piece of fruit allows her the chance to eat mindfully and thankfully. The Shepherd likes it when we take time to appreciate His bounty.

Her refusal to consume anything which isn't to her liking is right, because our Shepherd would not want us to eat anything which is not wholesome.

The corollary to that is, I've learned to pass up anything I do not truly want in that moment. If I'm not hungry (or no longer hungry); if it doesn't taste good, I simply don't eat it. This is a big change from the days when I ate for reasons other than hunger.

With the holidays coming up, I'm mindful that some of us will be at family tables, expected, urged, and coaxed to eat things we don't like, don't want, or which aren't good for us. We'll perhaps be in circumstances where huge meals are considered to be the norm. We might get too hungry, or have a glass of wine, which makes us liable to eat more. I have my own set of helpful techniques to get through holiday meals, and I'll write some more about those next time.

Be good to yourself at the table - as good as the Shepherd would be. ;)