Binge Eating
We're talking about having a healthy spiritual diet, using Joe Seaborn's article to get us thinking. He mentioned the 'hit-or-miss' approach that many people take to their spiritual nourishment, and then he says "others seek after God with intense zeal for a time, and then in a sudden shift, they are slacking and lacking. The term 'binge' comes from an old word that means 'to heap up grain.' It had to do with piling up grain in all its golden glory. In time, it came to refer to grain that had not been properly stored and was soon ravaged by rats. What began as a golden heap of glory ended as scattered debris of husks. It is one of the saddest sights in the Christian community – a person who once knew God in His fullness, a beaming witness to His transforming grace. Then, for reasons that are hard to trace, he or she begins neglecting the means of grace – Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, fellowship, witnessing. And the very life that once glowed with spiritual health shrivels."
The Dangers of Spiritual Over-Consumption
Perhaps you are a binge-eater when it comes to actual food – you tend to over-eat and then feel too full to eat properly. I remember doing this a time or two at restaurants that have an 'all-you-can-eat-buffet' type of arrangement. You make sure you arrive hungry – perhaps skipping lunch that day so that you are ready to pile up your plate, and then you really go for it and eat a lot because you can! But after you never feel good. You always feel fat and sick when you've over-eaten.
The truth is that I often fall into the same trap in my spiritual life. With the internet today, we have a kind of 'all-you-can-eat-buffet' at our fingertips every moment of our lives! There is so much spiritual material out there, and it's easy to overdo it. I sometimes get so excited about this book and that book and this magazine and this article and that website and that YouTube channel and this podcast, and before I know it I've completely overwhelmed myself and I feel spiritually ill.
Shereen has to warn me quite often to not overdo it and burn out in my private devotional time. I have a history of this: I decide to read the Bible, then pray with her, then go and read three different books I am busy with, then do some intercessory warfare and prayer and also make sure I've read an article in the old and new Nazarene publications I'm reading – and so by 8am I am exhausted and the day hasn't even begun.
Finding Balance in Spiritual Consumption
And WhatsApp is no help! I say that knowing how many of you receive my messages on WhatsApp! But I'm sure you get a great number of other devotions, messages, pictures and videos every day on your phone. You can't consume them all. You'll feel sick if you do.
So, don't binge-eat when it comes to spiritual food. The best is to pick one or two things that you do every day without fail – and then perhaps 'snacking' on the others here and there when you feel spiritually peckish.
Don't hit-or-miss, but from my own experience I can say: don't overdo it either. Choose a healthy amount of good spiritual food, and you'll be sustained and satisfied, without burning out.
