Malnourished
I was watching an interesting show on Discovery Health the other day that I just can’t get out of my head. It was about a woman who weighed 637 pounds and was getting gastric bypass surgery. Most doctors wouldn’t do this because of the complications, but a doctor at Duke did anyway. Afterwards there were many complications. During one of the interviews with her doctor, he said that she was malnourished. This lady weighed over 500 pounds at the time yet she was malnourished. This is not something we would typically associate with someone that size. But check out the definition of malnourished:
“Affected by improper nutrition or an insufficient diet”
There were so many complications after surgery she just couldn’t eat enough food to stay nourished and healthy. Sure she was loosing weight but it was also killing her. She ended up on a feeding tube to force feed her the nutrition she needed. After months of recovery she was able to come home for good and was well on her way to many more years of a more fulfilling life.
Anyway, this made me think that so many of us who call ourselves Christ followers are also malnourished. Our daily time in prayer and our personal study of God’s Word is improper and insufficient. I am talking about myself as much as I am talking to others. Check out this survey, I read on tonymorganlive.com, of Christian business owners and leaders:
· 31% were dissatisfied with their relationship with God.
· 30% were dissatisfied with their prayer and devotional time.
· 68% indicated they’ve been very or moderately stressed in the past 6 months.
Wow I know exactly how they feel. When I am dissatisfied with my relationship with God, my prayer time and my personal study time I feel stress in all areas of my life. Many of those who work and serve at the church are guilty of this type of improper nutrition. We act like we have it all together but we’re really just as stressed out as most other people and it is killing us. Check out what Paul says to Timothy about this:
If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. 1 Timothy 4:6
If we are to be good, worthy leaders in our church, in our home, in our workplace, within our network of friends and in our communities we have to be nourished by God. We have to find ways to reduce the stress in our life and increase the amount of proper nutrition from God. I think for many of us we have to make the decision to put the feeding tube in and force ourselves to spend the proper time in prayer and a sufficient time studying God’s word. We need to turn the TV off, turn the DVR off, turn the computer off, turn the Xbox, PS3 or whatever off, turn the phone(s) off, turn the kids off, turn the spouse off, turn the job off, and just focus on our relationship with our Creator. Because if that relationship fails then the all of our relationships and everything else fails.
For me I need to do many of these things including TV, DVR, computer, get up way before the kids, go to bed way earlier, just to start. Believe me this will be a force feeding. However, I know that my life will be more fulfilling as a result.
What do you need to turn off so you will not be a malnourished Christ follower?
