Redefining Freedom

Good morning! I hope everyone survived the Memorial Day weekend, and that you did more than survived - I hope you thrived :-). All of our family is now gone and things will settle into a more normal routine once again. It was wonderful having my sister in town for two weeks and I miss her already.

Yesterday was a day to reflect on those who gave their lives for our freedom. As I reflected on what it means to be free, I thought about how easy it is to move from freedom to entrapment, often without even realizing it.

That was certainly true for me when it came to eating. I had the freedom to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and that's exactly what I did. But that freedom eventually turned to bondage as the pounds piled on, and I found myself trapped in a cycle I couldn't get out of, until God led me to Take Shape for Life/Medifast.

There isn't much freedom on 5&1 (has anybody else noticed this? lol). We're given very stringent guidelines for what to eat, when to eat it, and how much of it to eat, and there really isn't room to vary off course. At first, it felt very restrictive and I missed the freedom to eat what I wanted, when I wanted. I missed the fruit, I missed the bread and I felt like I had chained myself to something that had taken away all my choices.

A funny thing happened, however, somewhere along my journey. I began to view the restraints of 5&1 as the means to give me a whole new sense of freedom. As I continued on my journey, the chains of binge eating were slowly being released and I finally realized that my long struggle with obesity would come to an end.

My experience reminds of of the story of what happened to the Israelites after God miraculously delivered them from Egypt following that first Passover. They had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, suffering terribly under their taskmasters until God used Moses to bring them out and started them on their journey towards the Promised Land. To get from where they were in Egypt to the Promised Land, a place flowing with milk and honey, they had to spend time in the desert (due to their disobedience, that time ended up being 40 years). While they were in the desert, God faithfully provided the food they needed each day in the form of mana, sent from heaven each morning. Guess what? The people got tired of eating the same food each day and began to talk about returning to Egypt as they thought about the food they were able to eat there. They had no concept of what the Promised Land was like - all they knew was that they weren't happy in the desert and they were tired of the same food day after day. They seemed to forget about the bondage they had suffered and were only focused on the foods they weren't eating.

I thought about this story more than once while I was on 5&1 and it wasn't hard for me to find applications to my own life. I had no idea what life would be like for me once I reached my own "promised land" of goal, and I wasn't always particularly enjoying my desert journey :-). But I did realize that what I'd left behind was bondage to a weight and a mindset that I no longer wanted - things that weren't freedom at all. As I asked God each day to help me get through one more day, He gave me the strength I needed to put one foot in front of the other and keep on walking. It wasn't always fun, but I learned to find joy along the way as new habits replaced old ones.

What I found on this side of goal is a whole new freedom, one that greatly exceeds what I called freedom before. That freedom includes restraints, because I can't eat whatever I want whenever I want it in whatever quantity I want, but within those restraints there is the joy that comes from self-control. As long as I live within those restraints, I know that I won't face the health risks of obesity and I know that I'll continue to enjoy my size 6's.

All of you have embarked on your own journey towards your own "promised land," and most of you are somewhere in the desert right now. The sun may be hot and the sand may be irritating between your toes, but keep on walking! There is so much to gain by persevering! This journey really does have an end, and when you reach the other side, you will never regret sticking with it today. The restraints of 5&1 are the vehicle that will bring you an entirely new and wonderful kind of freedom.