Here in the West, because of our abundance, we often forget about our body’s need for food. We rarely are truly hungry; whenever we have the slightest craving or appetitive, we just eat. Many of us have never really been deprived of food, and therefore we aren’t fully aware of our dependence; and when we are not aware of our dependence, it is easy to become unthankful to God for meeting our need and sustaining us. Even in our prayers at mealtimes it can be easy to mouth a prayer of thanks with an unthankful heart. A lack of understanding and thanksgiving leads many of us to one extreme or another in our relationship with food. When God is removed from any equation, it loses its balance.

Without God to trust in and hold on to, we cling to the left side of the story while neglecting the right, we cling to the black and reject the white or vice versa. We take the bait, we lose our balance, and we become bound to one way of thinking. While its true that it can be said of many that “their god is their belly” (Phil. 3:19), it is also true of many that their god is their physical appearance, and their every decision is dictated by Lord Body Image.

So many things can be said about diet and exercise and the importance of moderation and portion control, and on the other hand, so many things can be said about relaxing and simply enjoying what you have and not fussing over whether or not you’ve gone above your daily calorie count. It’s hard to enjoy an apple while worrying about whether or not it is organic; and on the other hand, we would prefer not to ingest harmful chemicals and fake food whenever possible!

Almost every extreme can be persuasive in its own right because its truth value is enough to appeal to one’s mind and desires. Almost every philosophy contains truth, but because it omits other truths, it is not truly true. So many things can be said about strategies and tactics to “get healthy,” and a lot of it can be useful and good, but our solution to the problem of extremes is simply to bring the only equalizing factor back into the equation: thankfulness to God.

From a biblical perspective, there are times to feast, and there are times to fast. Everything has its proper place. Food is not the enemy, but food is also not God; food is a creation of God to sustain life. He created our bodies to need it, and He created our taste buds to enjoy it! Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit of God who has “given us all things to enjoy.” (1 Tim. 6:17) Living with thankfulness in our hearts towards God will enable us to find the balance of wisely caring for ourselves while relaxing and enjoying the blessing of food.