We are what we eat

Recently we made the switch to organic free-range eggs. Immediately upon tasting these eggs, you notice a difference. It does have a darker yolk, but the flavor is richer. In the way an egg tastes good (which is hard to pinpoint for me), these just taste better. Weird, right?

Well, it got me thinking... while we were on vacation, there was this aireated pond outside our balcony. One day, there were a half a dozen guys just sitting there with strings in the water waiting for something to come up. Later, I found out they were crabbing. While I do like crab occasionally, this grossed me out entirely. That pond couldn't have been more than six feet deep! Yeah, it had a fountain, but it just seemed gross! This brackish pool of water did not look appetizing to me at all. So with all my free time on the beach, I wandered into thought about the food that those crabs eat in that brackish pond of slime. Then thinking on what crab actually are- the roaches of the ocean- I had officially turned myself off!

Russ came home a while back and was telling me how disgusting pigs are because of the disease they are known to carry. They will eat anything if it ends up in it's trough. That includes feces, dead animals, even pork. Both the pig and sea creatures without fins and scales (shellfish and others) were considered ceremonially unclean in Leviticus 11. God had communicated a wisdom about what's healthy and not in His law.

Before you object and call me legalistic, I understand that Romans 14:14 says:

"I know and am perfectly sure on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat. But if someone believes it is wrong, then for that person it is wrong...

:17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit".

I am taking away that it is a choice to eat what we'd like in light of the cross. But, that doesn't mean that if I eat MSG saturated Bugles Corn Snacks all day and night I won't suffer the consequences. My stance is this, you are what you eat. If you know what your dinner had for breakfast the morning it died and you're okay with that, and any physical ramifications you may suffer because of it's diet, than fine! Eat it! Enjoy! Believe me, a steak savored in ignorance can be quite freeing. But, possibly consider the diet of the creatures you ingest before gulping them down. We wouldn't exactly pick up a cockroach or sewer rat and call it gourmet cuisine. Same difference with the pig and the shellfish.

Like those chickens, when they were fed better food and given excercise, their fruit (eggs and meat) turned out better. So if we are eating the scum of the earth like crab, junk food, and chemicals, our fruit (reproductive systems, arteries, muscle tone, nervous system, memory, etc) all takes on a poor condition. For me, knowing I am treating my body with respect by giving it good, nourishing food helps me move closer to the ultimate goal stated in Romans 14:17:

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.