I often fall into a trap of "right thinking." I am guessing it's a dangling carrot for you, too. It's not that I mean to get stuck in a pit, it's just that I want to do what I am capable of doing. And I want to do it the right way. What I mean is that I delude myself into thinking if I just get the right energy levels, if I just get the right micronutrients, if I just have the right support for my immune system, and if I just get the right amount of sleep THEN I will be better, a better person...and only THEN I won't struggle in the ways I hate, THEN I won't cause a domino of carnage with my anger, THEN I will be more presentable to the world, THEN I will be a little easier to love. This is the path I find it easy to wander down.
Now, before you accuse me of throwing caution to the wind. Hear me out! Good sleep and proper eating are in no way unimportant. There are real mental, deeply emotional, and lasting physical consequences for neglecting proper care of and refusing attention to the human body. Proactive measures that help regulate the physical system are absolutely!!!! essential. We must steward these temporary tents with care, consideration, and wisdom.
But...
often the pull can be to swing the pendulum too far in either direction and trust in those efforts for ease--from "Who cares! We get an imperishable body when we die!" to "These supplements, these foods, these treatments are my only hope." We either neglect good gifts or we make them gods. Getting the perceived "right" amount of external care is important, but it's not the most important thing for my burdened soul. We are body and soul, and right nutrition and supplementation can do nothing to remedy the sickness of sin.
The reason I explode in anger is not primarily due to a drop in blood sugar.
I am a sinner who is tempted to be the queen of my own kingdom.
The greatest reason for my impatience toward others isn't simply because I got 4 restless hours of open-eyed sleep.
I am a sinner who thinks I can limitlessly do things better than everyone else.
The reason I wrestle with anxious thoughts and paranoid visions is not primarily because my hormones are imbalanced.
I am a sinner who cannot stand to have my close-fisted control threatened in any way.
My tendency to procrastinate and give excuses isn't primarily because of deficit disorders.
I am a sinner who would rather use my time selfishly for my own ends.
My quickness to complain isn't ultimately because I was prevented from completing a workout.
I am a sinner who hates being told what to do and when to do it.
My behaviors are a mere symptom. A sign post. Pointing out that something here is wrong. And it's my sin nature, and I am 100% responsible for it. This is the curse of being born into a broken body with a broken mind that has a disposition toward self and a bent away from the Lord. The effects of living in a fallen world are devastating and far reaching. I bemoan that I do the things I don't want to do and I forego the very things I do want (Romans 7). I am a sinner and my weak flesh is an obvious witness. And while the symptoms of physical imbalances and neglect can manifest themselves in outright sinful behaviors, it is not the imbalance itself that is responsible for my reaction. And what's more, if it were possible to be without physical turmoil, we would still experience this deep dissatisfaction from the vast spiritual chasm in our soul. We would wrestle over our inability to still be better, to be enough, to have the "rightest" thinking, to fix our hearts.
We cannot, like Eve, say that the serpent made us do it. It was not the caffeine's fault we behaved in such manner.
It is ours.
We stand guilty.
And we cannot, like Adam, say that the woman that God gave us made us do it. It is not the overstimulating, unending noises' fault we responded in the way that we did.
It is ours.
We are guilty.
And for every sin, we stand guilty and deserving of the just punishment of God's wrath (Romans 6:23).
But there is good news.
Christ took the record of our debts and nailed it to the cross in his body. It was never a possibility that if we could just be right enough THEN we would have been better. We are dead in our sin, unable, incapable. But Christ himself bore the punishment in our place (Colossians 2:14). Those who believe on him are no longer declared guilty, but we are justified by the blood of Christ, receiving forgiveness for our sins, adopted as a son to our Father, and given eternal life in Christ (Romans 1:16-17, 3:21-26). We no longer serve the cruel master of sin, but are free to walk in the Spirit of Christ (Romans 6, 8:1-11). And this is all grace.
And so we can freely eat nutritious foods. We are free to exercise and free to use supplements and vitamins as we see fit. We are free to abstain from activities or foods would otherwise prod us in the direction of the sin. We are free to walk away from our sin and throw away excuses for them. Free to make positive judgement calls for our health in wisdom. Our soul has peace with God only through Christ; and though our outer body that is wasting away and groans to be made new, let us be cautious to not confuse the gift of just the right amount of physical care for the Giver of those gifts, let us be quick to distinguish the created elements from the Creator of all things, and refuse to muddy "right thinking" with Christ's imputed righteousness.
Our physical disparities, pains, and differences may not be made right on this side of eternity as we walk in sin-stained creation and feel the affects of living in a broken world. But they are a means of grace to bring us to the feet of Jesus as wait patiently for the day, rest assured, when all will be made new. All that is wrong will be made holy and wholly right (Revelation 21:5).
