February 8, 2010

Day 39

Weight: 199 lbs

Weight lost: -7 lbs

I’m static, parked now for more than a week at this level. I’m still taking communion daily. I’m still finding myself conscience of what I eat. But I’m not dropping pounds. Okay, what’s up?

It’s time for an exercise in displacement.

Displacement is happening in my life. We’re considering listing and selling our home and my wife Jill has been on a purging binge, emptying closets and drawers. She’s insisting that I join in and weed out my old, unused stuff.  There’s something very powerful about the process, not only practically, but, I think, spiritually too. Dumping old shirts and books I don’t need, simplifies my life and makes room for other better things. Two like-size things can’t occupy the same space. One displaces the other.  

I think I can use this principle in my spiritual life. While God has boundless capacity, we do not. He can love without limit, but we can not be loved without limit. We have portions of time, emotional energy, intellectual focus, and physical presence. When we are committed in one thing, we are limited in another. Therefore, if we want God to speak to us we have to eliminate clutter that currently pre-occupies our soul.  We have to clear the static that distracts our awareness and focus in on the one broadcast frequency God is using.  Put another way, we need to make room! 

I think there’s a food consumption principle here as well, When I fill my stomach with Doritos and cheese dip and chocolate cake and other Super Bowl cuisine, I have no room and no desire for an apple or a salad. But when I have fruit or salad, I supplant space for chocolate cake.

Today I supplant. I will eat my fill of good things, beginning with a bowl of granola and ending tonight with communion.