Our God Is Not Our Stomach

As of today, I’ve lost exactly 80lbs since January of 2023. I still remember stepping on the scale and seeing the number 305 starting back at me. In high school, I remember making a comment about somebody being fat and my father telling me to be careful how I treat people because that may be me one day. I remember telling my dad I’ll never be fat and him telling me that I better get control of my eating. As a teenager, I could eat everything in sight and never gain a pound. I could eat a whole pizza by myself, and it was like I didn’t eat anything. I was constantly active and played sports year-round. My metabolism was through the roof. I could burn calories as efficiently as a fine-tuned machine. There was no way I would ever get over 200 lbs. 

Fast forward to my freshman year of college and my life slowed down a little. I wasn’t playing collegiate sports, but I was constantly playing pickup basketball, football, and intramural sports. I still ate horribly, but I was burning those calories like a champ. I went from 170 lbs down to 155 lbs in the first 3 months of being there. Then, something major changed. I started dating a girl. Suddenly, instead of playing sports and staying active, I was sitting and giving googly eyes to a pretty girl. I was watching movies, eating out more, and just hanging out all the time. It’s college, so it’s not like any of that is bad. The problem was that I didn’t change my eating habits to match my activity levels. There was also an inevitable truth that finally came to fruition. My metabolism slowed down.

The two factors that always kept me skinny when I was younger were my activity levels and metabolism. What happens when both slow down? My weight shot up. By the end of the school year, I was at 185 lbs and starting to get a bit of a gut. I remember clothes fitting a touch tighter and feeling lethargic at times. Even with all of that going on, I still couldn’t stop eating like a lunatic. By the time I graduated college, I was weighing in around 205 lbs, which was 50 above my lowest weight from my freshman year. During the course of my first ministry out of college, I grew to 230 lbs. By the end of my next ministry, I weighed 265. When I arrived at Leesburg, I came in at a portly 295. I’m only 5’ 8”, so that kind of weight on a short frame really causes some major back and knee pain. None of that mattered, though. I just kept eating.

I remember doing eating competitions, going to Red State BBQ and taking on their rib-eating challenge to get a tee shirt, and arriving home from work to start the eating that wouldn’t end until my head hit the pillow. I used food for entertainment. I used it for enjoyment. I used it for comfort. I was a glutton, and God’s Word doesn’t say a lot of nice things about gluttony.

Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.
Proverbs 23:19–21

Gluttony is the sin no one likes talking about, and that is for good reason. It is the sin that has become acceptable in the Church. First, I want to start off by saying that being fat isn’t gluttony and gluttony won’t necessarily make you fat. Gluttony is the inability to control your desire for food. It’s that simple. It’s giving into a base, human desire that tells us we can eat more than we need, and if we’re honest, most of us struggle with it. How many times have you gone to a church picnic or potluck dinner and eaten so much that you were looking for a forklift or wheelbarrow to get you back to your vehicle? It’s actually gotten so bad that we almost hold it in high honor when we eat more than the person next to us.

The big question here is, “Why is gluttony one of the DEADLY sins?” Gluttony takes away our humanity. When we act like ravenous animals, we aren’t living as though we were created in the image of God. Any animal, given constant food, will eat non-stop because their stomach is what leads them. Gluttony is a complete lack of self-control when it comes to our bodies. We allow ourselves to become weaker, slower, and more unhealthy in order to feed our appetite.

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Philippians 3:18–19

Gluttony is a lot like blinders that we wear in the Church. We focus more on the “really bad” sins like adultery, murder, and cursing, and we let gluttony slide on in. While obesity isn’t the only side effect of this, it’s the most obvious one, and it’s killing people in massive numbers every year. According to one report, US heart deaths related to obesity have tripled in 20 years. Just look at the American diet and you can see why. 

Gluttony also hits us where we really don’t like it: our wallet. In one study I read, a single person who eats healthier at home will spend $21,600 dollars over the course of ten years. The person who eats out two meals a day over the same time frame will spend $57,600, and I can promise you those meals will probably have massive portions and be far less healthy. Food can get expensive, and the more we eat, the more our bank account drains. For a lot of people who are struggling financially, just cut back on eating out. What we love, we invest in. Are we investing in Christ or our stomachs?

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
 1 Corinthians 6:12

We only have one God, and He’s not our stomach.