Several years ago, an envelope arrived with the results of
my blood test, a record which I typically just file away. But circled in a big red marker was my
cholesterol score, now over 200. At the
bottom of the sheet, my doctor inscribed, “Time to do something about
this. Let’s try diet first.“
The first thing that came to mind was oatmeal. “Oh, not that,” I thought. “I hate
oatmeal.” But it was worth a try. “I give
it one year,” I said to myself, one year, and see if it really makes a difference.
And so, I started, one bowl at a time, one day at a
time. I found that if I made it with
skim milk, it made the texture more tolerable to me and provided the added
bonus of more calcium in my diet. I
could not bear the tasteless paste of “instant oatmeal” in little packets, so I
purchased Quaker Old-Fashioned oatmeal (the least expensive breakfast cereal
out there), and to reduce time and clean-up, I made it in the microwave. One-half cup oatmeal, one cup of milk (or
water), two minutes on high, stir, 30 seconds more. Quick, easy, no pot to clean, and so much better than instant.
I gave it one year, every morning. Variation came from how I dressed it with whatever
I had on hand, a leftover apple cut up, a few berries, a dollop of vanilla
Greek yogurt, or some dried fruit or nuts.
I found out too that a bowl of oatmeal got me through the morning
without flagging energy or craving a snack.
One year later, my cholesterol dropped by 10 percent. That was about five years ago. I am still consuming oatmeal almost every
morning. I have acquired a taste for
it. And the numbers continue to
improve. I could not see the difference
in everyday increments, but there was a measurable outcome over the course of a
year, a distinctive difference in my health.
A couple of years before my oatmeal experiment, an
eight-year-old boy at our church challenged me to read through the Bible in a
year. He showed me the reading plan he
was using (www.oneyearbibleonline.com)
which provided an option of reading straight through or a little bit of Old and
New Testaments, a psalm, and a couple of verses in Proverbs each day. I chose the variety plan and completed the
Bible in a year, amazed at the scope and the scarlet thread of grace that runs
from beginning to end. The day after I
finished Revelation, I jumped in again.
That was seven years ago.
And from that daily serving too, I have experienced
measurable outcomes. Reading God’s Word
on a daily basis has unquestionably
changed me. I am a different person than
seven years ago. I see God differently,
I see myself and others differently. I
learn something new in His Word almost on a daily basis, words, phrases, and
applications that I never grasped before.
I find that immediate reactions
have been replaced by first responses.
God has whittled away the strongholds of my fear and replaced it with
trusting Him. And when anxiety wakes me
in the middle of the night, I am reminded not to let worry get its
stranglehold, but pray instead. I pray
my way back to His peace, often reciting a promise I have read in God’s Word.
And many times, God places someone on my
heart who may desperately need a little bit of prayer, right then in the middle
of the night, sometimes people I don’t even know, someone I have read about in
the news, a niece or nephew or a friend of our girls whose name comes suddenly
on my radar. I love more. A lot more.
So much so, that it surprises me.
Measurable outcomes are built on daily consumption. As Chuck Colson once said, “If there is no
change, there is no transformation.”
If I want my life to be different, today is a good time to
start.
Your Word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Psalm 119.105
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