What am I hungry for?

I have recently begun to realize that I have a problem with food. My problem is love it, a lot. You see I not only enjoy eating when I am hunger, I have come to the realization that I love to eat even when I am not hungry. A sad fact is that I have sometimes use food to feel better if I am down. I will even use food to feel better if I am upset and of course I use food when I am feeling good. As you can see this pretty much covers most of my life. Disturbing isn't it?

A year ago I realized that I was 52 pounds heavier than I was when I played my last college basketball game. In 1977 I weighed 190 pounds, give or take a couple. So last year at this time I weighed in at 242. For those of you who don't know I am 6' 3" so I am not the "round mound of rebond" (an old school reference, how many of you know who used to carry that nickname?), but 52 lbs more is disturbing. So I began a public push to lose some weight. In 6 or 8 weeks I lost 13 pounds and within 8 months had lost 25 lbs. But I am now back to only being down 12 pounds from the all time high, or low depending on your point of view.

As a part of my sermon this morning I shared that I have come to the conclusion that I am addicted to food. Now I realize that food is good up to a point, in fact you must eat to live. My problem is that too often I am living to eat. Recent issues with my health, mainly high blood pressure, have really caused me to desire to lose the weight. I am beginning to realize that it really is a life or death issue, as in improving my chances for a longer life if I lose it. But the bigger issue is that I believe this obsession with food and the resulting weight gains are hindering my walk with the Lord. How is that you may ask? Because anything that I am that obsessed about is going to cut into the time I should be relying on God. Literally there are times that I have a greater hunger for food than for God. OUCH!!!

John Piper, in his bood Hungry For God, writes, "The wekness of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavoury, but because we keep ourselves stuffed with other things." Does that ring any bells in your soul? It did in mine. Later on the same page he added, "Your soul is stuffed with small things and there is no room for the great." Wow, how true and painful is that statement?

So I am seeking a breakthrough in my addiction to food and a shedding of the excesses in my soul so that my appetite for God can return to the level God created. I don't want to fill up on junk and miss what he has for me.

How is your hunger?