quick fads, common sense, and Jesus Christ

While I was visiting a friend the other day, I noticed that she had the latest Runner's World on her desk. She was finishing off some work, so I started paging through it, looking for some tips or suggestions about what-to-do-when-you-want-to-start-running-again-but-you're-not-patient-or-smart-enough-to-see-through-the-healing-of-an-injured-foot.

Lo, and behold, I found myself on the food page (a lot of my day revolves around food, so this was no real surprise), looking at an article entitled: 8 New Rules for Healthy Eating. Always one to be interested in eating tips and nutrition, I decided to give it a read.

Informative? Yes. New? Not so much. It was pretty much the same advice I'd been reading or hearing about for the last few years: Fad diets are stupid. Eat moderately. Eat fruits and veg and whole grains. No refined processed products. Eat breakfast etc.etc

"They keep on saying the same thing, but packaging it in different ways," I remarked to my friend, before chucking the mag to one side without bothering to finish the article. I dislike reading about things that I already know about, and I was pretty sure I could tell you how to eat healthily without having to read yet another article. But then, my memory kicked in and flashed before me a picture from the previous night, where in typically ironic timing, I'd ended up chowing Tennis biscuits and Swiss roll for supper instead of my usual healthy offerings. Obviously, what I was reading wasn't acting itself out in practice. Sighing, I picked up the mag again, and starting reading the article properly.

Coming out of church a few days later, I wondered if I didn't approach my Christian walk in the same way I'd approached the article. We know that Jesus is the only way, and we know that reading the Bible, praying, meeting with fellow Christians etc. are all to our benefit, but for some reason we're still on the lookout for a simpler, shorter way to do things. But, just like you can't replace wise food sense with quick-fad diets, we can't replace Jesus with other things, 'cause Jesus is the only way. And so it is, we will find ourselves listening to the same idea over and over again in our churches, in our bible studies, in our circles of Christian friends: Love Jesus, and show this love in the way you treat others. Sometimes, I wonder, is this really all there is to it? And the answer is yes.