Radical Obedience

The Vacation is Over My Friend

Driving back from vacation in the wee hours of the morning, feeling ill, sick to my stomach, queasy, a self-induced sugar coma came over me.  Ugh, why do I do this to myself?  Why do I think that just because I’m on vacation that all logic goes out the window?  On vacation, food doesn’t have any calories.  On vacation I won’t get the awesome sugar high or the not so awesome sugar low.  On vacation my stomach will all of a sudden be able to process the junk that I indulge in.  Gross. 

For those that don’t know, I’m a self-professed sugar junkie.  Hi, my name is Shila and I’m addicted to sugar.  I found help when I discovered the book, Made To Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, quit my habit and lost 25 pounds along the way (Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!).  I loved the book so much I had an online bible study for our church group and friends.  It was amazing!  OK, back to my sugar junkie moment.

So, I messed up.  I went back to my bad habit.  Sugar found me and I indulged and threw my go-to scriptures out the window as I had a second piece of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (just because it was my mom’s birthday does not make that right!) On the drive home I felt the guilt.  Why God, why did you give me this thorn in my flesh?  Why is this so difficult for me to handle?  I was doing so well, what made me go back to my old habits?  Help me!

As part of our online bible study, When Women Say Yes to God, the question arose, “Is there something that God is asking you to give up?  What specific steps do you need to take to fulfill this obedience?”  That question was easy to answer as I frantically ran through my house when I got home searching for anything sweet.  Hello, time to give up sugar, again.  God has specifically asked me to give up sugar.  I’ve been down this road, I know He has and now He’s telling me to give it up again.

And yes, you may think this is silly, I mean people have struggles with “real” addictions - drugs, alcohol, or even spending too much money, what’s the big deal about sugar?  I dug into the story of the rich young man, found in Matthew 19:16-26, and realized that Jesus asks us to give up anything in our life that is controlling us.  In my case, I wanted sugar more than I wanted Jesus.  My radical obedience is to give up this sugar addiction.

So what do I have to do?  For me, I need to go back to the scriptures that have helped me in the past.  2 Corinthians 12:9-11, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 10:13-14, Revelation3:8, Romans 6:19-20.  I need to use any craving as a prompt to pray.  I need to get back up, dust off the sugar from my mouth and move forward.  I hope that if you are struggling with anything and you stumbled like me, you too can get up and move forward again. 

Deuteronomy 2:3 – You have circled this mountain long enough.  Now turn north.

Turning north in radical obedience,

Shila