Preciousssss

How creepy is that?
Many of you have heard this revelation in my life recently. For those of you who have not, I'm not done learning it yet so I'll continue to beleaguer the point. The Lord has really been revealing to me how much I covet. I never really understood the way this sin had presented itself in my life...I always thought "I'm just comparing myself" or "I'm just not content" but really it boils down to coveting.
Coveting my friends' size four jeans, or another friend's cute clothes, better stuff, cuter shoes, perfect bag etc, etc, etc.
It's nauseating how materialistic I am...really.
Well, obviously I was struck with the perfect image of what I feel like I become when I covet these things...(Lord of the Rings certainly has some redeeming value if nothing else than for spiritual analogies you'll soon learn). Anyways, this picture of Gollum, holding the ring hissing the word "preciousss" and holding on to it for dear life strikes my mind and I realize...I absolutely am like that with the many things I begin to covet in life.
I'm not content. (Certainly this can be a good thing when it comes to not being content with my pursuit of God, righteousness etc) When it comes to being un-content (is that a made up word? Maybe it's discontent?) with the things I have and the body I have etc. it's just destructive.
This morning I was reading in Luke and I read this:
Jesus told his disciples "Do not worry about your life, what you will EAT; or about your body, what you will WEAR. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." (Luke 12:22-23)
I know this is referring to the disciples not worrying about whether they would eat or be provided for, but it had a much different meaning to me sitting at my kitchen table this morning.
Life is more than food....
That means life is more than calories, diets, ideal weights, favorite jeans, "summer legs" and "Kate Austen" (the girl from LOST) ripped arms.
Certainly it honors God to exhibit self-control and not be gluttonous (and this is something I pray that he will help me to realize and not obsess over) but it really is such an insignificant pursuit to agonize over pounds and fat grams.
How futile.
How unrewarding.
Later in that chapter it says, "Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink, do not worry about it, for the pagan world runs after all such things." (Luke 12:29-30)
It's true! It is a pursuit of those who do not know God to set their hearts on what they will eat and drink (low carbs, diet pills, etc etc). Our only pusuit and that which we seek is not cute clothes, comparing to the models, our friends, wishing, wanting, craving, comparing, struggling, envying, obsessing, striving.
It is to seek the kingdom of God....first....only...simply.
Just
that
alone.
Whoa! What a revelation that was to me. Now, the disclaimer is that certainly it is honorable to be healthy and have discretion etc. But it is not to be what I set my heart on.
And that my friends...is a very liberating thought being a woman in the century we live in.
Free at last, Free at last.
Thank God almighty! Free at last!