Calder Parish Church

Minister's Message

Dear Friends
The time has come. The writing is on the wall. The scales have spoken. It’s diet time. Every now and again, when the legacy of too many biscuits and not enough exercise takes its toll on my waistline, I have to lose weight and reduce my abundant frame to a more manageable size. The question is: how to go about losing the necessary weight?
Truth be told, despite the plethora of diets that are advertised to the general public, there are only two ways to diet. One involves let us say a ‘fad’ diet, something fashionable and of the moment. So, for instance, in the 5:2 diet, for 2 days in seven, one’s calorie intake is restricted to 500 or 600 calories a day, down to roughly a quarter of the normal recommended intake. By all accounts, this rather gruelling regime is very effective, but the problem with even the most effective of such diets is what happens after we lose the necessary weight? Very often, dieters actually put back on the weight they have lost and some extra weight with it. The reason is that we tend to look for a quick fix to our weight problems, and if we want a quick fix we’re not interested in long-term management of our weight. The second way to lose weight is the opposite of this quick fix attitude: eat less, exercise more, cut back on foods that are loaded with sugars, fats and other high-calorie material. That’s my strategy: already I have already cut back on my portion size, I’m cutting out biscuits, cakes, fatty foods in general and all eating between meals. I might even try to couple this with some exercise, as in a moment of madness we splashed out on a Step machine. In other words, apart from the temporary cutting out of all biscuits and cakes, this is what my lifestyle should be like anyway, if I want to live healthily. And before anyone objects, Cuban cigars are calorie free, so there.
What is true of diets and looking after our physical health, is also true of our spiritual health. As Christians, we can sometimes be tempted to put the spiritual aspect of our lives on the back burner. In a busy day, bible reading and prayer come last compared to the many chores and duties we have to perform. The odd Sunday morning becomes the supposed remedy to the spiritual lifestyle of the rest of the week. We can’t be spiritually healthy like this: our relationship with our Heavenly Father will undoubtedly suffer; mine certainly does, because I have a bad habit of doing just this unless I’m very careful. The only way to be spiritually healthy is through daily and lifelong discipline, it means making sure that prayer, bible study, fellowship with other Christians and whatever else we need is built into our how we live our lives. It’s not easy, but it’s better for us than aiming for a quick fix that just leaves us back where we started. Here’s wishing you excellent physical and spiritual health!

With every blessing
Ian