Welcome to The Celiac Meditations! They are sweet snippets of encouragement to help people with celiacs (or other autoimmune or diet-related lifestyles). A little validation for the crazy feelings we feel. And a little bit of hope that it's all going to be okay. I hope you stick around. Leave comments below and share your experiences! xoxo steph
Survival is such a distant concept from us with a grocery store on every corner and a credit card in every pocket.
To say “I’m starving” is always exaggeratedly overstated.
And every time I’ve read spiritual literature about *not* worrying over food or drink, I always connect it personally to money. "The birds don't store their treasures in barns." So ya, don't over contemplate my savings account, don't hoard it when you can give it. That makes sense in today's world.
Until the ugly head of celiacs disease reared its head.
Because I’ve come into a realization of how little I can eat, without actually poisoning myself.
No eating out, no coffee, no oats, nothing any other human has touched except a certified Gluten Free factory.I enjoyed eating foods and pretending they didn’t hurt me, until I stopped enjoying it. Then I really didn’t enjoy it.
It’s not my tummy that’s being affected. It’s my mood. My emotions. My perspective on life. On my future. On everything.
Autoimmune disease means nervous system – which affects the most basic functions of life. And so now I read the old verses with completely new eyes. “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or drink … is life not more than food?” Jesus said.
Especially that last question:
Is life not more than food?
I don’t know, is it? Because to me, that’s all it is about. Not just preparing my next meal, but if I go out for the day, preparing every meal ahead of me. Will I be out an hour longer than expected?
If I get stuck and I’m hungry what will I do? Like a person driving through the highways of desert Arizona on a low tank of gas, the only thing I can do is pray.
Until I read that verse where now “Don’t worry about your life” has taken whole new meaning.
Because money? Of course I know God can take care of that detail.
My life? Well, I guess I never even attempted putting faith in him for that ... the sole sustenance of my being.
Can I go without ‘storing in barns’, without stashing up my backpack for days of food when I go to the mall? It’s never about what we're doing, it’s about the intent. The motive. The fear - or faith - of it.
Through celiacs, I have a new outlook on survival. That even in the midst of a wealthy, healthy and abundant society, the fear of survival can still lay just below the surface.
We each have things like this and all it does is make each of us realize how intimately we need the Source of all. The need to yoke even the sustenance of my life in trust to God.
t h e c e l i a c m e d i t a t i o n
What if life is more than food?