One of the things we Christians say is that “We’re in the world, but not of the world.” Or at least that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Temptation is everywhere. It’s pretty hard not to be “of the world” anymore.
Take, for example, advertising. So that we will buy “stuff”, we are bombarded day in and day out with cutesy slogans and enticing pictures. And have you noticed how much advertising has to do with food?
Obesity is a killer, but how many corporations selling food, especially fast-food, care? Over the past ten or fifteen years I have lost 40 pounds. I know how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off. People need some help and support in attaining and maintaining a healthy body weight. Do they get it? Rarely.
Processed food corporations advertise on Saturday morning TV in an attempt to “hook” children on their products. They use kid-friendly personalities such as Shrek to endorse grease and sugar. They talk about their products in term of a “nag factor,” i.e., how much will a kid nag his/her parents to get this snack food. The higher the nag factor, the better the product.
The Center for Disease Control recently published the fact that obesity rates have doubled for adults and tripled for children over the last 20 years. One reason is that portion sizes have ballooned. Twenty years ago bagels were (on average) 3-inch diameter, 140 calories. Today they’re more like 6-inch, 350 calories. Fast-food cheeseburgers were 333 calories, today 590 calories. Soda in 12 oz. cans was sold in vending machines. Today you can rarely find anything other than 20 oz. bottles of soda, an increase in calories of 66%. French fries of 2.4 oz. gives you 210 calories; 6.9 oz., 610 calories.
It’s hard to be “in the world but not of the world” when you are surrounded by temptation. In the Bible such a situation is a call for holiness, holy meaning devoted to God and not the world. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, that you are not your own. For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6: 19,20 -DJ
No comments:
Post a Comment