ON A DIET.

Extended holidays and prolonged trips most often means taking gastronomical adventures! It is very unlikely to take a trip to a large city and not stop by the honored shrines of gastronomy! If one has friends to visit in a city, it more likely that one can get invited to numerous hard-to-say-”no”-to mealtimes! That was what happened to me and my friends who recently returned from a trip to Vancouver. On the road home, everyone understood that we’ve all somewhat binged “unintentionally” for seven long days and that all of us should be determined to engage in “Biggest Loser” sort of activities!

Yesterday, a guest at home went to get groceries. He took out a huge box of Twinkies from one of the bags! A Twinkie is a stuffed mini cake. As it is, a Twinkie is full of sugar, cholesterol, fats, and carbs (things that when taken in excess could blow people up easily). Then suddenly, the world reinvents a way to prepare it– less healthier! Fried Twinkies! I love desserts although I’m not necessarily sweet-toothed, but yeah, I love desserts. I can live without them. But I used to like having regular Twinkies when available. But can you imagine fried ones?

The preservative-laden Twinkie cake is battered, dredged and fried in hot oil, then dusted liberally with powdered sugar and chocolate sprinkles or sometimes whipped cream. The concept boggles the minds of those who have never heard of this relatively new take on Twinkies, but once they eat one, they’re usually converts. It sounds strange, deep-frying a Twinkie. Why on earth would a Twinkie need to be fried? One piece is already sinfully delicious– with 180 calories, 15 grams of sugar, 200 mg of sodium,  and 9 grams of fat, mostly the evil, artery-clogging trans fat. Now frying it adds more than 300 calories and 23 grams of fat, nearly half of a day’s recommended intake of total fat grams.

Most of the time, we think of “feeding” or giving someone what he or she wants is tantamount to caring for that someone! But I figured, anyone who tries to offer me so much more than I actually need (like a fried Twinkie) doesn’t really care about me. Suppose I wake up one morning craving for dessert, yet you know it is the worst thing for my body. Suppose you care for me very much and you know my love affair with desserts. Suppose that every day you create from scratch delectable creations made with all this high fat stuff I crave for so much. Suppose you hand-deliver it to m every single day, with tender loving care. Then when I am fifty, I am lying on a hospital bed after a massive heart attack that has damaged mt heart muscle beyond repair, would you the say to me that I have been loved well? Would you say you have loved me well by giving me the things I want?

A kid I know ate so much sweets today, more than what his body requires for a day. Tonight, he came by at my house with his parents and the first thing I did was give him a piece of Twinkie! Was that wise? No. I shouldn’t have. I knew how much sweets he’d taken in yet I completely ignored what I knew by giving him a Twinkie! Not right.

Figuratively, sometimes in our lives, we go crazy far like frying a Twinkie! We do things that we know are not healthy for us but we still like to do them– and enjoy them as though they add life to our days and days to our lives. Unhealthy relationships- we enter spiritually and legally wrong bonds, we spoil kids, our girlfriends, our boyfriends. Unhealthy talks- we cuss, we reject, we criticize to hurt, we slander. Unhealthy manners- we abuse in every way. Unhealthy deals- we venture into not-so-legal to very much illegal enterprises. Plus other unhealthy stuff. These have to end. Otherwise it will take its toll on you soon.

SOMETHING NEW

Last week, as I sat with a young friend on a park bench under a maple tree just off Beach Avenue in Vancouver when I had a sobering thought– I have not blogged since May, and wished I had my Mac on my lap. It was what I’ve come to identify as a “perfect blogging condition”– a venti caramel macchiato, beautiful summer afternoon, Puccini on my iPhone, gorgeous view of the English Bay! Well, in fact, I’ve had many moments of “perfect blogging condition” throughout my seven-day break in Vancouver; moments I don’t usually have in Lloydminster.  Thus the occasional blogging hiatus! It’s interesting to note though before I continue, the word hiatus is Latin for yawn! A yawn! Yes, that’s what happens at the end of each day for many of us; a nice big YAWN, and in my case, with little or no time left to blog about the day like I used to. How I miss conditions when I can be so inspired to write about something and actually have the time to do it! This is not a complaint about not having the time to do certain things I love doing.

I love my work. I really do. Part of the beauty of being a pastor is that we get to be present with people at some of the most significant moments of their lives. We sit with them at moments of decision when they are wrestling with things they care about. We watch them grow from one degree of understanding into the next. We share people’s ups and downs; joys and sorrows; gains and losses. We hold people’s hands through sicknesses and harsh diagnoses and walk with the through the valley of the shadow of death. We preach and teach and laugh and cry. And somehow in the midst of it all – something happens for us as well.

My roommate’s brother and his wife are here visiting from South Africa. Over lunch he asked, “So what does a pastor do?” Even before I had a chance to give out a well constructed treatise about what pastors do, he said, “We’ve had a very nice and encouraging moment this past week.” He relates that one of his closest friends experienced a big loss– the death of a son, and how a “young pastor like you” ministered to the family through the whole ordeal. His wife, a Hindu said, “One of the most intriguing things for me is how you Christians view death! You seem to have a positive view of it.” “He preached the most heart-warming message of hope I have ever heard,” said my roommate’s brother, “It didn’t sound rehearsed or mechanical. It was authentic. The minister wasn’t just doing a job, he is living a life!”

Living a life. That stood out for me, and technically, should beg us to ask ourselves, “Am I living a life of faith?”

We “clergy” do our job to serve the people of God and in the best case scenarios the people of God also serve us; and together in community transformation happens. We are made into something new individually and collectively. In a community we get to see what love can do. We play it out and practice it over and over with one another. And we are willing to take the risk in doing so because we know that the love that binds us together is ultimately bigger than any one or two or five or six of us. Imagine if we approached life that way. Sometimes we look for dramatic change – a new location or job or a new relationship. Somehow they are easier marks to identify. But what if we approached each day as a day filled with untold opportunities to live into something new, in faith.

jlas.gilliardc.vancouver.