Living Consciously: food (part 1)

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone.’”
Luke 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4

I’d be remiss if I didn’t attribute a lot of my ideas in this post to my wonderful girlfriend. Without her this post would not exist. Actually, without her I’m quite sure none of these posts would exist. She’s the epitome of a conscious liver. (ha! That’s a funny term! I just called my girlfriend a sentient organ.)

I became a vegetarian about a year ago. I loved the fact that it was a relatively accepted way to eat more consciously. For the first few months it was a little challenging. For lunch I’d start thinking about making a simple ham sandwich, and then I’d have to stop and think. I guess it’d be peanut butter and jelly instead.

My forced layer of thinking stretched far beyond not eating meat. I found myself putting more thought into the fruits and vegetables I ate. My snacking lessened and my desire for dessert decreased. I thought a lot more about everything I ate. I didn’t expect such diverse benefits to come from the choice to be vegetarian.

So, why do I think being a vegetarian is a faithful step toward viewing food through a Jesus lens? Well, let me tell you.

Generally speaking, I think God’s plan for humanity is good. And in God’s original plan for humanity Adam and Eve didn’t eat meat. This actually applied to animals too. There was no spilling of blood, so therefore everyone and everything ate fruits and vegetables (Genesis 1:29-30). It wasn’t until after Noah and the flood that God consented and gave people animals to eat. And even then, the blood was sacred (Genesis 9:3-4). That’s not why I’m a vegetarian, but that seems reason enough to give it more thought, doesn’t it?

Actually, I probably shouldn’t call myself a vegetarian. I eat meat. I guess “flexetarian” is a term that describes me. Also in the Garden of Eden, God gave people the instructions to care for the land. That’s the real reason I’m a vegetarian. Meat is convenient. Any fast food restaurant will prove that. But, (like I said in the last post,) convenience is usually a sign of something gone wrong. In this case it’s the mass-produced-meat industry, which, generally speaking, doesn’t care for God’s creation. It doesn’t treat the animals as God’s workmanship. It uses many pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. (Interesting fact I found online: Plants yield 10 times more protein per acre than meat.) And it fills the air with greenhouse gases to transport its goods across the world.

I don’t think eating meat is unfaithful, but I do think some meat we eat is less than faithful. To live consciously we have to consider our meat more carefully. In Jesus’ day they didn’t worry so much about this. They didn’t have a commercial meat industry. Any meat they ate had to be either local and fresh or transported and spoiled. I happily eat local meat. Hunted meat is great and seafood is alright if I’m near the source of it. If someone I know is going to butcher a cow, then I’ll happily buy some of it.

There’s a downside here: local meat is more expensive. Yep, that’s true. But is money our top priority? Is money our god or is God our God? Just because it’s cheap (and cheapness is a form of convenience) does not necessarily make it a good choice.

I recently read Food Rules by Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivores Dilemma). (It was a gift from my sister. She demonstrated the generosity from my last post!) He summarized his suggestions for eating like this: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” I concur. “Eat food” means you try not to eat “edible food-like substances.” These are the random things in ingredient lists that you’d never have in your pantry or cook with yourself. “Mostly plants” is pretty self-explanatory. I’d draw the line at my suggestions above. “Not too much” is a critique of our American culture. We eat way more than we need to and that may have been something Jesus would have questioned if he lived today.

Well, it looks like this post on food will have to be a two-parter! I still have 5 ideas left to write about. More to come tomorrow!

Did these random thoughts bring up any random thoughts in anyone else? I really appreciate it when people post comments even if they aren’t especially substantive. I also appreciate when people follow my blog. It’s nice to know who’s reading.