Episode 5 Transcript
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Welcome to your daily bread with co hosts, Abbie Stasior and Hannah Calhoun. We're here to be your weekly source of spiritual nourishment, guiding you to find food freedom in a deeper connection with Christ. As we explore the intersection of faith and nutrition, these bite sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and your body through practical advice, biblical wisdom, and heartfelt encouragement.
And as a disclaimer, we are not pastors, but passionate registered dietitians and sisters in Christ, offering our insights to support you on this faith filled journey to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Join us by taking a seat at our table as we break bread and allow God in to break the chains of diet culture.
Abbie: Hello, hello. Today, y'all, we are going to be diving into Ecclesiastes. So join us in Ecclesiastes chapter six, verses seven through nine. Everyone's toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied. What advantage have the wise over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?
Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. So I want to start with first giving us some context to the book of Ecclesiastes, because this is one of those books that you can't just pluck out a piece of scripture and start talking about it.
You have to put this book in context because half of this book is written by Solomon, and he's wrestling with some things. And even though he is the wisest guy on earth, and God gave him that wisdom, which is so cool about Like God was like, pray for anything, you know, I'll grant you anything. And he was like, I want wisdom.
Like, that's so cool to, to pray for that. And God gave that to him. He is discerning a lot of things in this book. And he says many times, everything is meaningless. Nothing means anything. Everything's vapor chasing after the wind. So taking this book out of context can leave you feeling really. Yeah.
depressed about the world. And if we take it so literal and out of context, it can just lead to us misinterpreting a lot of scripture. So what this book is, is really getting at, because different translations will say meaningless or everything is vanity. And what they mean by the word vanity is , not a vanity looking in the mirror, but more of a vapor that something is like physically real and something is there, but it's not lasting.
That's what they mean. So. When Solomon in this verse is talking about how their appetite is never satisfied and we're kind of roving or desiring something that we can't see or what we don't have yet what our desires are when we are chasing that what we do not currently have. That is meaningless and that might be a real thing that you're desiring, but it is not long lasting.
So we have to, like, even though this is considered one of the wisdom books, some of the things in this book are from God and godly wisdom. And some of it is kind of Solomon discerning his things. So lots of things there. And I wanted to bring this verse to our attention because I just hear time and time again from the clients that I work with and from my own personal dieting history, that when we are constantly striving for weight loss or body that we don't have, or even like a job that we don't have, like anything that we're like, you know, Once I get this thing, then I will be happy.
Then I will be confident. Then I will be satisfied. Once I lose the 10 pounds, then I will feel desirable or feel confident going on dates. Anytime that we have that thought once this, then that we. Are really chasing after the wind. We are never satisfied. We think we will be, but we truly never will be.
And I'm sure you've had this experience, Hannah, and like all of your experience working with people in a variety of eating disorder settings. Uh, but in, in the settings that I work with, I've heard clients say, you know, I have been 250 pounds and I've been less than a hundred pounds, any single weight that I've been at, I haven't been satisfied.
And I always thought that if I was a lower number, I would be satisfied, but, and it's interesting that I've heard clients say the smaller that I got, the the number on a scale, the lower that it was, the more dissatisfied I got actually. And the more that I was desiring that thing, it just, it almost made it worse.
Hmm.
Hannah: It's, it's so, that's so real. And it's so relatable. Um, you know, I'm thinking even of myself, like growing up, like always being in a smaller body, literally remember being 90 pounds, 95, 98, and also having experience being like Yeah. You know, 125, 135, 140, whatever, you know, like, and throughout all of those seasons, I was still equally as insecure in my flesh.
Yeah. And so, it's like, if we are relying or chasing after a certain physique or a certain perfect way of eating everything perfectly, like, First of all, we will never achieve that because there's always going to be, you know, they say, oh, there's always someone better than you, always someone smarter than you, always someone prettier than you.
And there's always like this image of ourself in our head that's like better, more successful, smarter, thinner, stronger, curvier, uh, you know, even more perfect. Like whatever our goals are, whatever that perfect self is in our mind, like if we're always chasing after that, it's like we're finally catching up to it.
I'm picturing like , running and hugging like a cloud of like dust that just like slips through your hands and then suddenly it's like 50, 50 yards ahead of you again and the race starts again and then you finally catch up and you grab it and then it's Ahead of you again, you know what I mean?
Like that's kind of like what I'm picturing in my mind and yes Yes, and there's nothing wrong. I want to clarify like there's nothing wrong with like Goals, right like health goals. Oh, I think I want to be like a little bit stronger I think i'd like to like have a little bit more variety in my meals, but like When there's shame When there's pride when there's you know, if we're at that point and we're so proud That we're looking down on others for not having the physique that we have and not eating the kind of organic, non GMO, perfect food that we eat, then there's a problem.
Abbie: Yeah, and it's also important to note that it's not bad to have the desire to lose weight. In our diet culture, society, it's pretty normal to have that desire. I don't know. As much as we heal, if that will ever truly go away in the society that we live in. However, just because we have that desire doesn't mean that we have to take disordered action towards that or make weight loss our main goal.
So I think it's important to assess our motivations when, when we're goal setting. Cause I think it is important to have goals and to be bettering ourselves and have those benchmarks, but what is the motivation? behind it. Exactly. Yeah. So, and I love that you said that that cloud analogy of like, you're trying to hug a cloud, it's just not there in this vapor, because that's exactly what Ecclesiastes is talking about.
And I think This book, if only if taken out of context, or if you only read a little bit of it, , it can get really depressing because Solomon just keeps saying everything is meaningless. Everything is just like you chasing after the wind or trying to hug that cloud. Everything is vapor. It's fleeting.
And this is in the context of everything under the sun, everything in our world. However, what he says is that. Everything under the S O N, the sun, Jesus, everything that's like above, above earth, um, in heaven, that is not meaningless. Our toil there is not meaningless. There is meaning there. So instead of chasing after worldly things, things of the flesh, like if you, and there are so many verses that talk about how wealthy people.
Aren't satisfied with with their wealth. Chapter five verse 10 says whoever loves money never has enough And, four, verse eight, this is meaningless, a miserable business. I was just not enjoying what they're earning and the wealth that they've built. So that's, just so common in this book.
but those are things that are of the world. So when we fix our eyes on God, when we have meaning there, when he is our motivation, when he is The reason why we do certain things and we're doing things in his name to glorify him. That's where our meaning comes in. And I just
Hannah: want to highlight something because when you were reading the one about money, like those who love money, obviously as believers, we know there's a difference between like, we need money to survive.
It'd be great if we had a little extra, but the love of money. And I think that this might make it click for people like there's the love of money. And then there's the, I'd like a little bit, you know, of savings to invest in whatever so that I have like a retirement plan and can send my kids to college, like, there's that like reasonable goal to be financially comfortable, but then there's the love of money where money becomes your god.
And it's similarly, there is the desire to be your healthiest self. You might have an idea of what that might look like, just like you might have an idea of what financial comfort and cushion might look like, you know, God's, God's plan might be different for your, what your healthiest self, what your healthiest body will look like, just like he has a plan for what financial stability will look like.
And yeah, just like there's a difference between the love of money and just. Trying to be successful, there's a difference between making dieting, healthy eating your god and making it just a general and genuine goal in your life. There's a big difference and the difference can be, can be dangerous.
Abbie: Yeah, absolutely. And so I think when we're thinking about health goals and stewarding our body well, and we're going to be talking about this more and more on like how to steward our body well through our different episodes. And we hope that God is speaking to you and your quiet time after listening to these episodes.
, . So I think the more that we can focus on not making other things. And really keeping our eyes focused on God, he will guide our steps into how to best steward our bodies, also steward our finances as well. Um, and really trust him with that because I think whatever we are making our idol and putting more of an emphasis on over God, we're putting more trust in that thing and also striving in our own strength versus letting God come in and show us I think we should ask in your quiet time, Lord, how do I glorify you in this?
How do I, and even if it's with your finances too, how do I glorify you? What, what does that look like if, and say to God, if I want to step away from my desire to keep striving for thinness. And to be making the number on the scale in idle, I want to get away from that because I know that it's, it's meaningless.
It's a chasing after the wind. It's making me more and more dissatisfied for how do I best glorify you with, with my body and help me. Give me the strength to lay this at your feet and with that surrendering and that earnest desire to seek God's way He's gonna honor that he is going to show you We just have to get into our quiet time and get ourselves Quiet enough and be there long enough to let him speak to us personally So good.
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thank you for joining us on this episode of your daily bread. We hope you found inspiration and practical guidance to nourish your body and soul. Remember the journey to a healthier relationship with food and a deeper connection with Christ is ongoing and we're here to support you every step of the way.
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As we conclude today's episode, we encourage you to take what resonated with you into your quiet time with God, allow God to reveal to you any changes that you can make for his glory, trusting that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in his image. Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll continue to explore how God's word helps us heal our relationship with food in our bodies Until then may you find both physical and spiritual nourishment and may you be filled with his peace and joy.
God bless
