Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Biggest Loser

The most important thing

A life ended yesterday, a life I didn’t know well but can’t help but mourn.

Death is so common yet so surprising when it happens. We all know it’ll come to us someday. None of us can escape it, but until an “unexpected” death happens, we forget that for any of us, any day could be our last.

This death hit home because he was not much older than my parents. And he was a church leader. And he was a husband to a wife, father to children.

I believe God knows the time each of us will die, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying that someday my husband won’t come home from work or one of us will get cancer or whatever else I can (and try not to) imagine might bring death to our door.

I take for granted that I’ll have another day. Sometimes I put off till tomorrow what I should do now, thinking I’ll always have time. While processing through the death of this man, I urgently want to do practical things like buy a life insurance policy and create a will so my children will be taken care of if my husband and I die while they are young.

More importantly, I want to do everything God wants me to do when He wants me to do it. To stop slacking as a Christian and seek Him with all that I am, eager to obey.

We just watched an episode of “Biggest Loser” where the final four contestants had to run a marathon as their last challenge. I’m not a runner nor do I want to be, but I noticed something about these people as they approached the finish line.

They were tired from having run 26+ miles, but when they saw the finish line, some of them sprinted. Somewhere within them, they found an extra burst of energy to carry them across the finish line. They didn’t want to limp or drag or walk across the finish line; they intended to run and finish well.

The apostle Paul encouraged the early church with running metaphors. This verse came to mind as I watched the show: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” (1 Corinithians 9:24, NIV)

Only one Biggest Loser contestant could finish first, but all who finished received a prize. For the Christian, there is no first or last, but all who finish will be rewarded. I don’t want to be found limping, crawling or walking toward my heavenly reward. I want to run!

Being tired is no excuse. Again, Paul said to the early believers:

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9, NIV)

I don’t consider myself old by any means, but I know that I am getting older and that tomorrow is no guarantee. Tragedies like yesterday’s, though, cement that reality in my mind.

And I think of these words from James:

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:13-14)

I’m guilty of planning ahead, of thinking about what will happen in our lives tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. I want to be prepared, but I’ve learned to expect the unexpected when it comes to God. At the same time, I know I can expect to die sometime, so I should leave nothing unsaid, nothing undone that God wants me to say or do.

I know that if I fail, that won’t keep me from heaven, but I want to end each day knowing that I did what God wanted and if it was His choosing to take me, I’d be ready.

Others who knew him better have said this man lived that way, that he was ready. So, really, his life didn’t end yesterday; it’s just beginning.

Knowing that for certain is the most important thing.

Numbers don’t lie

Last Friday night, I found myself both appalled and inspired as I watched two hours of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.” If you’re not familiar with the show, check out this link: http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution.

One of the most shocking parts of the show was when Jamie visited a local family and collected all the food they ate for a week. Their diet consisted of fried donuts for breakfast, pizza for snacks, hot dogs and a whole bunch of other processed junk-type food. As I watched, I swelled with pride. At least I don’t feed my family that, I thought. We don’t always eat the best stuff, but we at least cook from scratch as much as we can and eat fruits and vegetables.

Fast forward to today. I was reading about childhood obesity in my most recent Parenting magazine. The article provided a Web address for a BMI (body mass index) calculator on the CDC site (http://www.cdc.gov/). Our 2-year-old daughter had just been to the doctor, so I thought I’d check it out.

According to the CDC, she’s obese. Obese??? And so are the rest of us. Now, I know that none of us are at our ideal weight points, but “obese” isn’t the word I’d use to describe us. “Obese” is reserved for “The Biggest Loser” types, right?

One of the aspects of “Food Revolution” that surprised me was the unwillingness of the people to listen to what Oliver had to say. Watching from the outside, it was easy to see that what he said had merit. But less than a week after judging their attitudes, I found myself in the same state: denial. As if I don’t have enough parenting worries, now I have the nagging thought in the back of my mind that I might be killing my children.

The validity of BMI as a diagnostic tool  seems to be in question. Perhaps it’s better as a guideline than a rule. For me, at least, it was a wake-up call. Spring is here, and even though it’s a chore to get three people — me, a 2-year-old and a 4-month-old — ready to go outside, we need to make the effort because we need the exercise.

And, it was another opportunity for God to show me an area where I could be more humble. As I thought about my reaction to the family on the TV show, this story from Scripture came to mind:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14, NIV)

Obese or not, I need to remember that I’m no better than anyone else, and all of us need God’s mercy.