So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.” 1 Peter 1:14
Is there a pill for that? Well, it’s time to write about diabetes, falling off the wagon and trying to climb back on. What’s the old saying, “Same song, second (or third) verse?” So, a while back, I stopped watching what I was eating and justified it with another old adage, “Ignorance is bliss.” I would eat my way through just about anything unhealthy with the comfort of what you don’t know won’t hurt you…wait, is that my third adage? Guess what? Ain’t so. As I rolled through Thanksgiving and right into Jingle Bells, I had the sneaking suspicion that things weren’t well in the blood sugar arena.
Is there a pill for that?
Bro. D
You need to know a couple of things. Judy was cooking healthy, and I faithfully took my diabetes medicines, but the bottom line was I was taking in way too may carbs, and a lot of sugar, for the medicine to work. Adding to my demise was the fact that I stopped walking in early November when the weather changed. Can someone say, “Recipe for disaster?” Well, I finally got my courage up and made a doctor’s appointment and scheduled some tests at the laboratory to determine where I was. Well, where I was …was in deep weeds.
When your doctor, I call him Doc, calls you a couple of days before Christmas, you know it probably isn’t to wish you Merry Christmas. We are friends, and he was his normal, cordial self and then he said, “Well, preacher, I got your lab results back.” At that moment I knew I was busted…and busted good. I was going to give you the numbers, but I chickened out at the last minute. Let’s just say they were not good—just a few miles down the road from disaster. Well, he suggested I watch the sugar and carbs and I told him I would try. Then, I had a cookie.
Like all good sugar addicts, I kept right on munching my treats. But one thing I did do was set a “drop-dead” date. It was Thursday, January 12th. I woke up that morning, dusted off my trusty sugar testing kit and, well, the news was worse than before. Ouch…but it was enough to cause me to start walking “the straight and narrow.” Oh no, another adage.
Well, Sunday morning, I was talking with a friend about blood sugar and stuff—you know typical church talk. Smile. I said something like this, “I want a pill that will allow me to eat all the bad stuff and still manage my sugar.” Yeah, right. That’s what we all want. Live poorly with no consequences. You might as well go hunting unicorns. And then it hit me. That is exactly the kind of god we want. We want a god that winks at our sin, our bad choices and allows us to mosey on our way. Well, there might be a god for that but it sure isn’t the real God.
You see, God loves us way too much to ever, ever leave us where we are. He knows full well the cost and consequences of bad choices and sin and He just won’t, can’t leave us there. No, there isn’t a pill to cover (or at least fully cover) your bad eating habits and there isn’t a god (not a real God) who will let you stay in your mess. And guess what? Doing the right thing is a good thing.
After a couple of weeks of eating right and exercising, my blood sugar is way good. And a path of obedience (His will always leads down the path to fewer regrets and small consequences) is always good…way good. So, let me encourage you to start today to do the right thing…the God thing. His Word says, “So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.” That’s good advice. You will find that He will be there to help you make right choices. He’s got this. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 