Hi friends!
I got some amazing responses from yesterday's post. One of which is from one of mine and Andrew's best friends- Justin Edgar. Justin was our college pastor while we went to Texas Tech and is one of our favorite people in the world. Above is a picture of us with him at our wedding, He preached at our wedding and was amazing! (i was so skinny then....sigh.)
Anyway, Justin is super wise and left an amazing comment in response to my confession yesterday and I just wanted to share it with everyone! enjoy!
Whit,
I too struggle with celebration. Celebration is an excuse for me to be a glutton - plain & simple. I am a glutton. What's hard about celebration is that we have so much to celebrate as Christians. We should be a joy filled, celebrating people. We are accepted as gluttons, so shouldn't we celebrate? The question becomes for us, how do we celebrate and not be gluttonous in our celebrating? And I'm not quite sure. We do walk in grace, praising God that He loves us as gluttons. We should pray for the Spirit to produce in us self-control. And I think we should think of the good life. What is the good life? Is it us stuffing our faces with rich, pleasing food? Or is it be satisfied with good things and giving good things to others. We must think on what version of the good life we are buying when we over-celebrate. We also need to practice things that help ingrain in us this vision of the good life. Practicing embodied things, physical things. So, shredding it with Jillian, is one practice that produces in us that vision of the good life we seek. What are other practices that form Christ in us that are real tangible things, not things out there in idea land. Maybe working regularly with those who over-celebrate, the addict among us and working with those who have no resources to celebrate, the broken among us. These practices may help us bring celebration into it's right standing. Also I think we must live in the Gospel and allow it to be our security and motivation. The Gospel gives us a good conscience. Sin can no longer condemn. It's power is cut off. We are still gluttons, but we can't be condemned as gluttons. This allows us to confess that we are what we are, which is what you are doing here, and in this confession there is freedom to be real with others and be real with God! So, to all us over-celebrators, rest in the Gospel, which gives us something to really celebrate.
I too struggle with celebration. Celebration is an excuse for me to be a glutton - plain & simple. I am a glutton. What's hard about celebration is that we have so much to celebrate as Christians. We should be a joy filled, celebrating people. We are accepted as gluttons, so shouldn't we celebrate? The question becomes for us, how do we celebrate and not be gluttonous in our celebrating? And I'm not quite sure. We do walk in grace, praising God that He loves us as gluttons. We should pray for the Spirit to produce in us self-control. And I think we should think of the good life. What is the good life? Is it us stuffing our faces with rich, pleasing food? Or is it be satisfied with good things and giving good things to others. We must think on what version of the good life we are buying when we over-celebrate. We also need to practice things that help ingrain in us this vision of the good life. Practicing embodied things, physical things. So, shredding it with Jillian, is one practice that produces in us that vision of the good life we seek. What are other practices that form Christ in us that are real tangible things, not things out there in idea land. Maybe working regularly with those who over-celebrate, the addict among us and working with those who have no resources to celebrate, the broken among us. These practices may help us bring celebration into it's right standing. Also I think we must live in the Gospel and allow it to be our security and motivation. The Gospel gives us a good conscience. Sin can no longer condemn. It's power is cut off. We are still gluttons, but we can't be condemned as gluttons. This allows us to confess that we are what we are, which is what you are doing here, and in this confession there is freedom to be real with others and be real with God! So, to all us over-celebrators, rest in the Gospel, which gives us something to really celebrate.
I love that response. Love it. Lets stand in the gospel today and celebrate life in Him who is the giver of life!
P.S. I made the most amazing dinner last night. I had planned to have a sweet potato and portobello mushroom, but I didn't feel like a sweet potato. I wanted pasta, so here is what I did!
1 cup of whole wheat spaghetti
1 portobello mushroom baked with balsamic vinegar and 1/2 cup of newmans own marinara sauce
1/2 cup fresh spinach
6 kalamata olives
I mixed it all together and it was AMAZING. My husband was even kind of jealous. So good!
Todays plan is:
breakfast: Banana
Snack: Apple and almonds
Lunch: left overs from dinner last night :)
Snack: 1/4 cup hummus and veggies
Dinner: Turkey chili? Im going to dinner at Emily Rice's house and she said she was making turkey chili. Hopefully it will be good for me!
Have a great day!
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