As many of you know, I'm a big fan of Beth Moore. I've gone through several of her Bible studies and enjoy her insights and practical applications. One of Beth's quotes from her "Breaking Free" study continues to challenge me: "To the the degree that I'm in captivity, I'm believing lies. To the degree that I'm walking in liberty, I am believing the truth."
That statement causes me to reflect on my journey from 260 pounds to goal, a time when I was finally able to walk away from over two decades of emotional eating. For years, I was caught in what was truly captivity, unable to break free from a miserable cycle of emotional eating and yo-yo dieting. I believed for a long time that I couldn't get out of it, that this was my "lot in life", and that led to feeling pretty hopeless. There were times when I was in the midst of binge eating and realized how sad and destructive it was, but dismissed it as "well, I have an eating disorder," dismissing my actions because I believed I couldn't help it. I tried over and over again to lose weight and my repeated failures led me to believe that I couldn't lose weight. I was over 50 and believed that women my age couldn't lose weight. I believed a lot of things that weren't true and, as a result, those lies kept me captive.
As I've shared before, I didn't believe that Take Shape for Life/Medifast would work, but decided it was worth giving it a try. The first untruth that was exposed was my belief that I couldn't lose weight, that women my age couldn't lose weight. I saw 9 pounds come off the first week and my long-held belief about my ability to lose weight began to crack in light of the truth. Because of the cost of the program, I made a commitment to stay on plan for one month (I couldn't justify the cost unless I was actually doing the program). When the stuff of life bubbled up that would have plunged me into an emotional eating binge, I found that, with God's help, I WAS able to stay on plan and deal with the emotions instead of stuffing them. As that happened time and time again, I realized that although I was certainly an emotional eater, I had the ability to walk away from it - I was not a helpless victim. I finally began to embrace the truth that I was only held captive as long as I chose to be held captive.
I've shared this story before, but since it fits so well here, I'm going to share it again:
Have you ever seen an elephant at the circus? I don't know if they still do this, but years ago circus elephants could be seen standing next to a small wooden stake in the ground with a chain around one ankle. In the story I read, the writer became rather curious as to how one small wooden stake could hold a large elephant captive, so he did some investigating. As it turns out, the trainer begins using the chain and stake when the elephant is just a baby. The baby elephant is unable to pull free and, over time, gradually accepts the chain and the restriction it provides. What the elephant never realizes is that as it grows stronger, it could easily pull the stake out of the ground and be free. You see, the elephant adapts itself so completely to the chain that it loses sight of the fact that it could free itself in a moment, if it only realized that the chain no longer had any power over it.
The lies we believe are the puny stakes in the ground that hold us captive. We have the ability to walk away the minute we choose to believe the truth, and the truth is that we CAN walk away. It's not easy, but it's possible. The choice is ours today . . . choose wisely :-)
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