I learn so much from others who share their stories with me. The other day someone wrote: “No good repairing my zip (on my jeans) until I repair my life.”  How astute is that?!  She has realised what all overweight people need to realise, that the issues we face are about what is broken on the inside, not what is broken on the outside.

Is this you, I wonder?  When the clothes don’t fit something is getting out of control.  Fine if you’re intentionally pregnant, not so good if it’s your eating that is out-of-control. What to do….?

Well, we can try using a safety pin to hold our clothes together. But this is a short-term measure, not a long-term solution. Diets are like that: to the undiscerning eye, they can make everything look okay for a while but it is an emergency measure, not a long-term solution. After a while those trousers pop again!

For some the answer is simply to throw the trousers out and get a larger pair. Perhaps when you dieted and got into smaller clothes you didn’t throw the larger ones out.  You kept them at the back of your wardrobe ‘just in case.’ Getting into larger clothes may make us feel physically comfortable again but it’s a horrible admission that things are once again out of hand. The negatives crowd in: disappointment, failure, shattered dreams.  Maybe we panic, maybe we try to laugh it off, but the truth is, we’re broken. It isn’t the zip that needs to be repaired’ it’s our lives.

Let’s not pretend that this is easy.  It isn’t! Allowing God to show us what is going on inside and submitting our wills to obey the Holy Spirit in the way we eat can be painful at times and it is human nature to try and duck the issues.  But as someone else wrote a few days back: “I decided that productive pain is better than stuck in the mud pain!”  What a revelation!  Productive pain…. Now that’s an amazing insight! 

Paul, writing about the chastening of the Lord must have had something like this in mind when he wrote: “My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children.” (Hebrews 12:7 – The Message Bible)

Never be frightened of God’s dealings; He’s simply repairing your life. Say ‘ouch and Amen!’ if you have to, but remember - ‘after the pain the beauty remains.’