Comfort food

Bear with me, I'm having a little moment over here. I'm cold, hungry and sick, which could also be interpreted by most people around me as just plain grumpy. I just want a little comfort food, is that so much to ask? My mind is convinced this would make me feel better. But it's that first little, just this one time, that gets you. Comfort foods aren't even off limits really, I just tend to want to eat them in larger quantities than I should. And I'm sure if I looked hard enough, there are enough healthy foods options around here, surely one of them could possibly comfort me. Then it hit me, I'm totally missing the point here.

This weight loss journey for me is about so much more than (hopefully) watching the numbers tick off the scale. It's about a journey I believe God told me I absolutely had to take. So, I find myself wondering why the first place my brain goes when it's seeking comfort is either to just retreat from a situation completely, or to comfort food. You would think this would be obvious. That it would send alarm bells sounding off in my brain, but it hasn't, until now. And even now they seem to be more like the beep of my cell phone battery running low, rather than the tornado siren that should be going off in my head. 

The problem here isn't that during this fourth week of trying to eat much, much better, I occasionally find myself hungry. That's easy to fix... If I'm really hungry I should go eat something healthy. The problem here isn't that my body doesn't handle cold weather well. But that's fixable too... Put on socks, layer more clothes, or turn on the space heater. The problem here isn't that I'm sick. Well, that's maybe not as easy to fix, but it's only a cold and will pass very shortly. The problem here is that I'm grumpy about it all. The problem here is what I choose to turn to so that I can escape feeling icky. The problem here is the food seems to be holding all the power.

Ahem.

I would also like to state here that it is almost embarrassing that such small inconveniences have caused me to "suffer", therefore bringing about this entire blog post. I, at least say that I, am completely aware that there are people who have no food, no heat and are suffering from incurable diseases. But for today, for me, these small things were my suffering. I know they don't compare to the actual suffering of many people. 

Today in this suffering, it finally clicked. I'm more than positive I should be looking for comfort from any suffering, big or small, somewhere besides the bottom of a bowl of pasta or a cookie. Say from Jesus?

The worst part? I know this! I know He's there. I know He's been there. I know He's not going anywhere. I know that He revealed to me over 7 months ago that this was a problem and it was time to get it under control. (You could read about it here if you wanted to.) And I did good for a few months, then I just stopped. In the back of my mind I knew God said I had to do this. I know He's got big plans and this is only the beginning. So January 1, I started back, but even after all this time I still didn't really get it. I thought I needed God to help me resist temptations, to keep me from overeating or from eating "forbidden" foods. I thought getting healthy was the goal. Guess what? That might not be it at all! Will He help me do those things when I ask? You betcha. He has. But is that all He wants from me? Not even close.

He wants to be my comfort!

Every time I turn to food, healthy or unhealthy I ignore His desire to be my comforter. When I'm feeling hungry, before I head to the kitchen, He just wants me to turn to Him first. (Because sometimes, I'm really not hungry, I'm bored, sad, angry, happy, or one of a plethora of other emotions). And guess what He really, really wants to be there for me, through all of those things, and more. When I'm cold, sick and just plain grumpy, I need to simply put some socks on, take some cold medicine, pray and seek Him in scripture. So this is what I did, minus the socks, I just don't do socks really.

Christ wants to be your comfort too!

Christ wants to comfort us through everything. 

Christ will comfort us through everything.

We just need to ask.

Every time we allow Christ to comfort us, He can then use us to comfort others. Life is tough. Some days are tougher than others. He's there for all of them. Let's seek Him. Let's be there for one another.

Every time I seek Jesus for comfort instead of seeking food I give the power back to whom it belonged to in the first place. 

Victory! 

While my suffering is small today, I'm reminded once again...

Feast on Jesus, truly the best comfort food I know.

What do you turn to instead of Jesus for comfort?