Opus 2014-239: Balance Is Extreme

As I have shared, when I was forced to admit I was diabetic, I lost over 100 pounds and in my case the symptoms went away.  Praise God.  I realize we are all different and this was my blessing.  Now comes the hard part, keeping it off.

One of the things I noticed is that I do a much better job of food control when I am going solo than when I am in a social environment.  Thus, I lost most of my weight in a year when my wife was out of town a lot.  The next year she was only gone a little, my weight ticked up.  The next time period she was home and the trend continued.  I have not given up.  I am still working on controlling my appetite. 

A lot of it is attitude.  I find that if I set a certain level of calories it helps me keep control of what I eat, but attitude takes over.  I start looking at that magic number as a target.  I find that I have tried to get as close as I can without going over.  I can feel good about that but it is the wrong attitude. 

I have begun to realize that my attitude should not be “see how close I can come,” but “see how far away I can stay.” 

Spiritually it is the difference between legalism and holiness.  In the Christian life there is a continuum of responses to the relationship between sin and righteousness.  There are three responses to temptation and sin:  Legalism - Holiness - Antinomianism

Legalism says, “How close can I come.”  Antinomianism, the rejection of any law, says, “It doesn’t matter what I do.”  Holiness is in the middle.  It matters how you stand in regard to right and wrong but the attitude is different.  It is not how close you can come but how far away you can stay.  It is a matter of willing obedience in the quest for the right balance.

Is it the heart of the law.  I seek to stay on that middle ground even though I keep sliding one way or the other.

homo unius libri