This sounds like exactly the sort of television we need: a program about perseverance, and hope, and more than a little bit of faith. It’s about a 30-something Sunday school teacher in Georgia named Ruby Gettinger and her struggle with obesity. Her journey is told in “Ruby,” a nine-episode reality series debuting on the Style Network on November 9th.

Recently, Ruby was interviewed by Sister Rose Pacatte, of the Daughters of St. Paul.

From The Tidings:

RP: In the television show your doctor tells you that you are a metabolic time bomb, threatened with diabetes, kidney failure, sleep apnea and pre-mature death because you may stop breathing while asleep.

Ruby: When he said this, the first thing I told myself was: maybe I am meant to die. I have been happy. I haven’t really suffered because I have been loved. I thought “I cannot beat this.” It took me two or three weeks to tell myself: “I am not going to give up; God has a bigger purpose for you than death. Faith in God will keep you going. You can do this; you can conquer this.” I still believe that I will conquer this condition once and for all, for me and for everyone else. And I want to find out why: if it is physical, spiritual, mental, all of it … maybe [through the television show] we can find out what the problem is and the cure at the same time.

RP: Why do you want to get back into shape?

Ruby: I have been battling obesity since I was a kid. I remember realizing when I was 13 that I was 100 pounds overweight. But I have always been happy and accepted. I wonder if this is why I never did anything to change.

On this television journey, everything that you find out on the show from doctors, trainers, and therapists, I am finding out. This is the first time I ever went to a therapist and it was very emotional.

RP: What is the link between God and your journey to weight-loss and a healthy lifestyle?

Ruby: At first I went to that dark place…. It’s a place of survival but I felt defeated in my mind. And then my faith said, no. I felt God telling me that this change is possible but I am going to have to go down the hardest road of my life. Before it was quick fixes; now I need to find out why. What got me here and why? What strengthens me is that God sees our addictions and he does not judge. He is with us if we will let him.

RP: What specific aspects of your life, or your lifestyle do you want to change to reach your goal?

Ruby: I am going to have to change the way I eat, I am going to have to exercise more and change the way I even think. I am really still learning all of this. But this time, I am going to the experts and letting them tell me how to do all of this so I can learn and everyone else can learn along with me!

RP: What is your support system? Who is in it?

Ruby: My support system consists of my family and friends, my family doctor, an expert on obesity, my trainer, nutritionist, therapist and my new family at The Style Network and GRP productions.

RP: What’s the link between God and this journey?

Ruby: God has always been on my journey, but this is about bringing everything together and examining those parts of my life, all the parts of my life, including the spiritual.

RP: How is your diet and new lifestyle a spiritual journey?

Ruby: Because I could never do this without God and the prayers of my family and friends. I have to get control spiritually of what has taken control of me. Only God truly knows my heart soul and mind. He is the only one who truly can direct me on my journey and bring the right people into my life.

RP: How have you experienced God in your life?

Ruby: I am still alive and I can even get around, I am here, I have not died. The power of God, faith in God — I cannot explain it. God is for real. There is a God. Because of God, I have the strength never to give up.

RP: How do you get your body to go with your spirit?

Ruby: A great question. I think what I am finding is that my spirit wants this change so much; it is about discipline. On this road I am finding out for the first time how to make the body and spirit meet; the hardest thing to do. Like Paul says in Romans 7:24: “Christ acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind but I am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”

The very thing I want in life is the very thing I stop myself from having because I can’t get control of it; I have to find a way for the spirit to lead the body. This is the why of the television show.

You can read more of the interview at the link.

And you can follow the story at Ruby’s website.