Staying Healthy

I like sausage biscuits.  I’m a northern boy, but seven years in Tennessee taught me some things!  I can still remember driving my wife to catch her ride with another lady who taught school at the same school where Kathy taught.  I would go inside that gas station/corner store in rural Tennessee and buy a sausage biscuit and the Memphis paper.  I would head to the church where I was on staff and having devoured my biscuit on the ride to the office, would then open the paper and begin my day. 

When I to this community, the church where I serve was right next to a McDonald’s restaurant.  I can’t begin to tell you how many days I left home without feeling hungry at all, only to have the STRONG urge for a sausage biscuit!  Since then, McDonald’s has moved, but I still know where two of them are!  Now I’m not a huge fan of McDonald’s, but I do like breakfast there on the go.  Through the years it is not uncommon to drop off one of my own family for praise team practice and then head to McDonald’s to grab breakfast to go for both of us.

As I’m getting older, I find myself asking more and more questions about health.  You might say it’s too little, too late – but I would say, I’ve cared for much of my life – though at times not enough!  For whatever reason, this past Sunday I decided to check calories and fat content on foods at McDonalds.  Now that was informational!  I discovered that there are something like 430 calories in a sausage biscuit – and a lot of it is fat calories.  The egg mcmuffin has just 300 calories and much less fat.  But, here is the problem.  I don’t like egg mcmuffins nearly as much as sausage biscuits. 

Ironically, I had already been to the gym for my Sunday morning routine.  I know how much it takes to burn 300 calories, much less 430.  For some reason, my mind went to the Bible and this verse:  ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’.  (Hosea 4:6)  It’s true that I was preparing to preach the word of God in two services that morning.  I wanted to share the word and help God’s people know His word more clearly.  The Lord’s rebuke had to do with their rejection of him (recorded in Hosea) – but as Dr. Adrian Roger’s used to say – there is only one proper interpretation of Scripture and that is the one the Holy Spirit meant when it was written.  But – there are a thousand applications. 

As I reflected on the verse from Hosea – the Lord reminded me of this application.  I thought how my lack of knowledge on the nutrition of my breakfast choices was not allowing me to make the wisest decisions for my health.  Now you can argue and I would agree, that there are far healthier options.  I will be pursuing those as well.   To keep the fire burning, you have to stay healthy.  That involves, diet, exercise, sleep, emotional health, intellect and a host of other issues.  Most of all we need to be spiritually healthy.  But don’t bypass the simple things.  As for me?  I saved the 130 calories and the fat content and made the bold move – I had the egg mcmuffin. 

Bruce