I am part of the setup team at my church, and today the goal was to help set up for a program we do during the Christmas season. Because I had to be there early in the morning, I did not fix myself any breakfast, knowing there would be food at the event.

I wish I hadn’t done that. I should have stayed with my usual method of eating which would have been protein with veggies and drink water. Instead, I had hot dogs, pizza and punch, all things I don’t normally eat, and I realized what I had was empty, as it did not make me feel good. This morning, I felt empty, even though I had something to eat; I felt devoid of nourishment. I would have felt better if I had something my body could have benefited from.

Isn’t that how life is? We go towards life calories of drinking, eating junk food, surrounding us with people who are not in our best interest, making unwise choices, and on and on it goes. When all is said and done, we realize we have been living in a sea of empty calories, those things that we should stay away from, causing us to feel inwardly ill and tired from implementing such things in our lives.

I realized that when I eat meals that have calories my body can benefit from, I get energy instead of feeling tired, and I don’t feel guilty about what I ate. But what about life? When you realize you are not happy with the way life is going by accepting empty worldly calories, change is needed. Frankly, that is a good thing. Spiritually, when you first became a believer, you were young in Christ and needed nourishing milk. But many either stay with the milk or move away from that and instead continue to eat the empty worldly calories. But moving onto more solid food allows you to experience the following:

• Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8 NIV
• Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:13,14 NIV

Like me realizing I need more solid food physically, I also know I need solid food spiritually to live life according to what God wants. When I eat the right things physically, I feel stronger. When I spiritually digest God’s word by not only reading what is recorded in the bible but applying the meaning to my life, I get spiritually fat; and that is a good thing.

For many of us we have to keep running the race with the lifestyle God wants, having hearty spiritual meals, not worldly meals that contain empty calories. Hope you are encouraged to do the same…