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Disordered Eating in the Church
No, this isn't a tirade against stale doughnuts during
fellowship hour.
Joy Elasky Fleming
and Bruce C.E. Fleming
Drop-dead
beauties. An 18-year old, 5'8" famous Brazilian runway model
died recently of systemic infection due to her anorexic state.
She weighed only 88 pounds. Her problem? She sought to be the
epitome of beauty—according to the tastes prevalent in fashion
circles.
A generation
earlier, singer Karen Carpenter died of complications from
anorexia. Deciding she was too chubby, she dropped her weight
from 140 to 80 pounds and then collapsed during a concert
singing "I'm on Top of the World." She received treatment but, at
the age of 32, she died of a cardiac arrest caused by the strain
that the anorexia had put on her heart. She was 5'4" but, at the
time of her death, she weighed only 108 pounds.
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Anorexic Karen Carpenter collapsed during a concert
while singing "I'm on Top of the World."
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Defining
disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders
[1] defines two of the major adult eating
disorders as follows:
The essential
features of Anorexia Nervosa are that the individual refuses to
maintain a minimally normal body weight, is intensely afraid of
gaining weight, and exhibits a significant disturbance in the
perception of the shape or size of his or her body (p. 583).
Its counterpart:
Bulimia Nervosa is
characterized by repeated episodes of binge eating followed by
inappropriate compensatory behaviors such as self-induced
vomiting; misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or other medications;
fasting; or excessive exercise. A disturbance in perception of
body shape and weight is an essential feature of both
[disorders] (p. 583).
The self-esteem of
individuals with anorexia is highly dependent on their body
shape and weight. Fully ninety percent of those who suffer from
anorexia are females. Most begin to exhibit the disorder in
their early teen years. Some may be restored to good health
after only one episode. Others may experience the disorder to
varying degrees for years at a time. Some, of course, only cease
their destructive behavior upon death.
What "feeds" that
sort of thing? For many people, expectations of beauty are
defined by "that cover girl look" or how Miss America would look
in her swimsuit. Underwear sales companies expose their
"secrets" in catalogs, online, and in greatly-hyped TV specials.
Whose
expectations? Shouldn't the expectations of the Master
Designer have relevance here? Aren't the purposes for our being
here—looking the way we do—something that should be in line with
what our Creator has in mind for us?
God's cafeteria.
Just after God created the first man and woman (Genesis
1:27) and just before God announced that all creation was "very
good" (1:31) he gave us food to eat! Our first diet was a
vegetarian one. Later, animals were added to our diet (9:3).
1:29 Then God said,
"I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole
earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will
be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all
the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the
ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every
green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had
made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was
morning—the sixth day.
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Food to eat is a basic blessing given to us by God.
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Food to eat is a
basic blessing given to us by God. All the other movers and tail
shakers of the earth were blessed with food as well.
Eating is a natural
activity, a wholesome activity which sustains our health and
strength. It is designed by God for our well-being, sustenance,
growth … and for our pleasure!
Satan's menu.
It is noteworthy that the first sin involved food and eating.
Satan, the Twisted Imitator, used food to bring about the
downfall of the human race. The serpent's brazen attack on God
deceived the woman into eating. Though not a willful rebel as
the man (Genesis 3:13, 1 Timothy 2:14), nonetheless she ate and
earned the imposition of the death sentence. The man went
farther than the woman. He used the fruit as the means of
willfully rebelling against God. He died, as did the woman, and
also earned the penalty of a curse inflicted upon the earth
because of him (Genesis 3:17).
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The first sin involved food and eating.
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Adam wasn't the only
one who ate for the wrong reason. Those who develop eating
disorders can use eating as a coping mechanism, an escape, or as
a substitute for love! In fact, any of us can end up all too
easily fixated on “self”—from the act of feeding oneself to the
food itself—and on what one “can” or “can’t” have. The process
of eating can become overly focused on the “created” rather than
on the Creator.
God offered
nutritious foraging to our forebears in the first Garden. God
catered breakfast flakes in the desert when he gave the fleeing
Israelites nutritious manna each work day of the week. And when
Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, feeding crowds of
thousands, he showed
his power to provide fully and
completely—even miraculously—for the needs of
his people.
All this gives us a
clear picture that our need for physical food and God’s full
provision of it is a tangible demonstration of spiritual
realities. We require food to live. And we must take the action
of actually eating in order to survive. God is the One who
provides for our full sustenance. In fact, he
himself is our
provision. No wonder Jesus said of himself, "I am the bread of
life!”
Paul and bodies
in 1 Corinthians 6. Paul addresses a list of problems at
Corinth in the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians. First he deals
with dueling Christians who dare to sue one another. He rebukes
them and reminds them that they will judge the world. We will
even judge the angels! Therefore arguments should be settled in
the body of Christ.
Paul's positive
message in 1 Corinthians 6 is that no matter what your past
might have been, "…you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God" (verse 6:11).
The body builder.
The "take home truth" in 1 Corinthians 6 comes in verses 6:19-20:
Do you not know that
your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God? You are not your own; you were
bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
God is interested in
our bodies and in the way we treat them! Our body shape and
fitness is a matter fit for spiritual evaluation. The better our
health and overall physical well-being the better our ability to
undertake work that demands stamina and long life. The better we
can focus our minds in prayer. The better we can move about and
serve others in practical ways.
Part of the secret
of John Wesley's great impact on England and America was his
physical resilience. After he settled on his spiritual methods
to help people grow in Christ when he was in his 40's, he was
able to circulate his ideas (literally) on horseback for another
50 years!
If we understand
what the Bible says about our bodies and how we use them, we
learn to call on God to help us live properly—and that includes
a balanced view of ourselves, others, food, and our eating
habits.
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Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. What does
that mean?
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Our present physical
bodies will not last forever as they are now, since the death
sentence was earned in the Garden. But they are God's creation.
Before Adam received the breath of life, God made his body from
the dust of the earth. Before Eve became a living being, God
built up part of the material taken from the man's side to be
her body. Bodies came first, designed as good places where our
spirits dwell.
God designed our
good bodies to be nourished by food and to gain strength from
what we eat. Food was no more an afterthought than were our
bodies. All this reminds us of important spiritual realities,
especially of our need for God and for God’s daily provision,
sustenance, care, and love for us.
This has further
implications for how we think about our bodies and about God.
God is the One we need to please. God is the one who determines
what is beautiful. We can learn to rely upon God as the One who
cares for us with unconditional love. When we live disordered
lives and need healing for body and soul, God can help us get
the help we need. He wants us whole—appropriate temples for the
Holy Spirit!
How does God bring
healing for eating disorders (and other issues)? He supplies
powerful weapons for our situation. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “The
weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the
contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We
demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up
against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ.” The following
steps include some ideas inspired by Marjorie Cole
[2] who
has very effectively helped people deal with eating (and other)
disorders.
- God works when we
invite him in to work in our lives. So that is the starting
point.
- Secondly, we can ask God to take us back to the original place
(experience) where the enemy first set up a lie in our lives
that led to this problem/bondage. As God shows us that
experience, we can feel the feelings we experienced at that
time. We can ask God to show us the lie(s) we believed.
- Thirdly, as God shows us a lie, we need to acknowledge to God
that we have believed this lie, exchanging the lie for the Truth
of God.
- Fourthly, we must confess this as sin to God. God promises to
forgive us and to cleanse us when we do this (1 John 1:9). We
can ask God what he wants us to know further about this. As we
wait for God we can expect God to show us.
- As for others who have wronged us, forgive them. And let's not
forget to forgive ourselves (just as we have been forgiven)!
Great freedom comes with forgiveness.
- Let's give our bodies to God. Ask God to make our bodies,
which are already his temple, well-pleasing to him.
- As we ask God to show us how beautiful we are to him, he
will! [3]
God says to you, “I
love you through and through. You are beautiful just because you
are you. I made you and you are a marvelous wonder.”
Notes
1.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and
statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.-text
revision). Washington, DC: Author.
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2.
Cole, M. (1999). Taking the devil to court: Present your
case. Shippensburg, PA: Companion Press.
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3. Please note that there are cases where our disordered lives for
one reason or another have reached the point of body dysfunction
where professional care is needed. The wisdom drawn on by these
practitioners is valuable and helpful and should be sought out
if you are feeling overwhelmed by these issues in your life.
Please also note that those who are struggling, especially to
the degree of needing professional help, should not be judged as
being far away from God or not “spiritually-attuned” enough to
receive healing. Christians can create extremely harmful
situations when making automatic judgments or assumptions about
the nature of another person's spiritual life based on his or
her struggles.
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