Ash Wednesday: Why Does Food Matter to Faith?
(Alternate Title: Faith and Nutrition, Part 2)
It's already been a whole year since I wrote my first blog post on my personal reflections with faith and its relationship to nutrition, and I thought in honor of Ash Wednesday this week, I would do an updated reflection. To read my first blog on Faith and Nutrition
Have you been considering how to connect your faith with your personal views on nutrition?
Do you have a personal theology of the body?
As I have continued in my education and training in gut health, I have also spent time correlating themes with all I have experienced and learned with my walk with God.
4 themes I’ve contemplated this past year:
Nutrition is a daily surrender.
As a mom of a large family, we have a busy life. All of our kids are involved in activities and we are gone many nights of the week. Avoiding convenience foods is a daily occurrence.
We do our best everyday to make the best nutrition choices. This means learning to say “no” a lot.
Packing food isn’t always pretty but we try and always take food when we travel or shop only at grocery stores.
This year I have also been incorporating a monthly 24 hour fast into my habits. Fasting is most definitely a biblical concept and many faith traditions still practice fasting. As a product of the modern christian tradition, we talk about fasting, but I don’t ever remember a spiritual discipline regularly discussed or encouraged.
Fasting from food - even for just one meal - is always really hard. I’ve always understood the spiritual connections in theory, but I’ve not actually had a spiritual practice of fasting. There are great spiritual connections to fasting from food, and I believe that God has included great physical benefits on purpose.
To learn more about fasting I recommend this podcast by John Mark Comer https://www.practicingtheway.org/fasting
Embodied faith is the concept of not just believing what Jesus said, but integrating spiritual disciplines into your physical life.
Some considerations for women, and a book I have on my list to read: Fast Like a Girl, By Dr. Mindy Pelz
2. When you don’t feel well, it is a challenge to serve well
We had many years where our family schedule was planned around trips to see specialists and clinics. You naturally are looking more inward when you are sick. We had to make choices to step away from leadership roles in various ministries so that we could focus on getting well.
Being sick is an opportunity to learn about your body and what it needs. However, when you are chronically ill, it is very difficult to exert energy on serving and caring for others. Oftentimes you need someone to care for you.
May it be a desire of our hearts to be able to serve others with our whole selves. Sacrificially giving up modern foods can also mean better health so we can better serve others.
3. In this modern era, be ‘'wise as serpents, and gentle as doves’. (Matthew 10:16)
When Jesus said these words to his disciples, culturally, snakes were symbolic of shrewdness and cunning. Doves were so innocent as to often seem completely clueless to danger. Jesus was telling His followers to exercise whatever wise shrewdness they can to avoid conflict and danger without losing the dove-like innocence that will allow them to continue to proclaim the truth without fear.
There are so many voices in the media uncovering the dishonesty of our modern industries. Greed and profit are driving what is permitted our grocery store shelves. It is our responsibility to accept this reality and make the investment to avoid the trends, flashy labels, and word soup that can easily dupe us into eating trash.
And yet as servants of Christ I think it is equally wise to not give in to cynicism, anger, or hatred. I personally am chosing to use my platform to shed light on what is the truth and inform people to know that food companies are using our addictions and illnesses to fill their pockets.
Calley and Casey Means are great resources for exposing the realities of the modern industry. You can find them on dozens of podcasts as well as the books they have authored. They also appeared on RFK’s podcast you can listen to here: RFK Podcast: Calley Means
4. Gut Health coaching has been an opportunity for conversations about emotional healing, relational healing, and physical surrender
In all of my years serving in various ministries, I have never had as many vulnerable and direct conversations with people about some of their deepest fears, hurts, and hopes. It has been my observation that when you have chronic symptoms, you also have chronic emotions, relational hurts, and physical addictions. As a health coach, most of my sessions are opportunities to help people discuss these connections and help encourage them to take the next step. Many times people have an abundance of information on health and they simply need someone that can help them weed out the nonsense and understand simple body biology principles.
It has also been my observation that when there is deep emotional hurt, food is not the first area to examine. Those hurts need to be tended to first.
I love Jesus’ example in the gospels because He gives us such practical tools for helping people. He knew that there wasn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Sometimes he feasted with them, sometimes he encouraged them, sometimes he scolded them, and sometimes he asked them to give up everything.
This year as we reflect through the Lenten season, are there faith and nutrition themes that God has been showing you?
A few books that have helped shape my perspective The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score
To learn more about embodied faith:
Liturgy of the Ordinary, by Tish Allison Warren
other writings by Tish https://thewell.intervarsity.org/arts-books-media/life-body
Dr. Allison Cook https://www.dralisoncook.com/about
