Dealing With Gluttony

February 2010

Last month I wrote about gluttony, that sin that crouches at the door of our disordered appetite to disrupt our intimacy with God. Gluttony is turning food and drink into idols. When food becomes an obsession, it is time to alter our relationship with it.

How then do we overcome gluttony?

As with any sin, awareness, confession, and repentance are a start. Then comes the hard work of heart transformation, and adding new habits. My role today is not to play Holy Spirit. I only seek to share what I have found helpful in the struggle against the conspicuous drive to overindulge in good food. A little time alone with God and a little time facing our gluttony will go a long way to get us on track to using food and drink in a God-glorifying way as God intends.

Down to brass tacks. Personally, as one beggar teaching other beggars where to find bread, I have found the following ideas and two behaviors helpful of late.

The first idea: We are embodied selves. By saying this, I am affirming something quite obvious. We know we are body and we know we are soul (spirit, mind). When I scrape the ice off my windshield I experience that activity as a body with a souI. When I’m dreaming I experience my dream as a soul with a body. The deep connection between body and soul is real. The bottom line here for gluttony is that how I relate to food affects my soul, and how I take care of my soul affects my body. If you find this idea hard to swallow for now, never mind. Skip it. But notice how the way we feel affects the way we eat (as in times of grief or tragedy).

The second idea: fasting is primarily a response to a sacred moment that God brings to our attention. A crisis, tragedy, and sin, for example, are apt occasions for us to respond by not eating (It is always so in Scripture that fasting is a response). However, a side benefit of periodic fasting (that is, not the reason why we fast) is the awareness that God can meet our physical needs even in the absence of food. Jesus told his disciples at the well that he has food from above that the disciples knew not of, which sustained him. Gluttony is a sin and fasting is the right response that may awaken us that our disordered attachment to food can be broken.

First Behavioral change: My colleague, David Manner, serendipitously gave me the best advice I have received on overcoming gluttony. We were eating one day at Olive Garden. As usual, I ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce (Is spaghetti not the fruit that is always in season on the tree of life flanking the flowing river in Revelation 22:2?). When my relished pasta graced the place mat in front of me, I noticed a few lonely strings meandering in all directions on the bottom of the shiny porcelain plate. A few drops of tomato sauce barely stained a few of the strings. David must have noticed my dismay at the paucity of the fare. With his quick wit, he sought to alleviate my insulted ego saying: “Maybe they brought you what you need, not what you want, Georges.” Ouch! Of course, it’s not easy to know when David is joking or sparring. No matter! Holy Spirit is not partial to niceties when he needs to get a truth across. Of course, that it came from Mr. Fitness himself was not wasted on me either!

I am taking David’s words to heart. They have become mantra to my eating habits. Eat what you need, not what you want. It seems that I always want to eat more than I should, but this episode is a constant reminder in my choices of servings when I eat. Thanks David. You meant it for good and it is doing good.

Second behavioral change: I have found it helpful to minimize the number of times I eat alone. There are times when we have to eat by ourselves. Some of us may live alone. But whenever possible we should eat in company. I have discovered that eating alone dampens my gluttony sensors while heightening the feelings of loneliness. Eating is meant to be a social activity, a grateful experience of the bountiful blessings of God. Eating alone is counterintuitive to human nature. Why even the first sinners ate together! Eating with others like family, friends, and colleagues, has a way of promoting a wholesome relationship to food. When eating with others, the relationship takes the primary focus and the food the secondary.

Our body, just as much as our spirit, are a stewardship to the Lord. We are embodied spirit. Separating the two is a mistake that can easily lead to a gluttonous life style while seemingly maintaining a robust faith. Those who walk with the Master are concerned for the bodies as much as for their souls.

Send this Column to a Friend






Past Columns

Return to top