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