My collection of gods

This was my final meal on just a dollar. Of course, it had to be oatmeal.

It's been one week now since I've been able to eat "normally" again. It feels good, I'll be honest. I've thought long and hard about this whole experience, and I have reached a conclusion.

Here is the biggest thing I've learned:

Eating easily becomes my god.
So does not eating.

The first of God's ten commandments given to Moses was You shall have no other gods before me. I realize now just how often I don't live up to that.

At the beginning of this project, while I was still adjusting to eating much less, I saw just how dependant I'd been on food. It wasn't just for nourishment, but for comfort, boredom, loneliness, and a whole list of other things. Without even realizing it, I made food my god.

Toward the end of the project, when I had mastered the "rules" of our dollar-a-day eating, I realized one day that I had started worshipping not-eating instead. It dominated much of my thinking, my conversation, my lifestyle. Without realizing it, I made the absence of food my god.

It's crazy to me how that works. It makes me realize just how easily I put gods before God.

But it's not only food. Sometimes reading becomes my god. Or my time spent with certain people. Or politics and current events. Or blogging. None of those things are bad in themselves, but I often allow them to consume parts of my life. In doing so, I begin to worship them.

They become my collection of gods.

I don't want to sound pessimistic here. This collection of gods is not the final word. Looking back on the experience and my god-worship, I realize two big things:

1. I am more sinful than I thought, which makes me see my need for Jesus more. I sin when I eat; I sin when I don't eat. Thankfully, I worship a God who says that if I confess my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive me. I don't understand that kind of forgiveness, but I am forever grateful for it.


2. Seeing glory in the gift should always lead me to glory of the Giver of those gifts. Food is a gift from God. So are people around me and books and, yes, even blogging. If I worship these things, they become sin. But they can also lead me to see deeper greatness and grace of God. That is a great thing.

Last Sunday, on the day I was able to eat again, I ran across one passage in I Corinthians. It reads:

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

He is God Almighty, infinitely greater than my trinket collection of gods. He deserves that glory.