Thursday, May 11, 2006

Forbidden Fruit

The end of this fast taught me something about my flesh. I looked forward to this day for a while. Although eating salads and light meals isn't exactly filling, it's nice to chew on something savory. I look forward to putting some cheese on my salad tonight.

But what I learned is that I don't care as much about food when I can have it. I understand more and more what Paul meant when he wrote that everything is permissible for him, but not everything is profitable. Forbidden fruit seems to be the sweetest for the first bite, but in the end it leaves us cold. When I got up this morning I had my normal glass of juice and went for my run. While preparing for my run I realized that I just wasn't as excited about eating as I thought I'd be.

I'm glad to have made it through this by God's grace. I'm not in a hurry to do this again, though I suspect that I will someday. I just know that I need to do whatever it takes to "mortify" my flesh, to borrow an old Puritan word.

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