Vineyard Women

by Constance Rhodes

The other night I was flipping channels and was surprised to come across a broadcast featuring Robert Tilton – the so-called “profit prophet” who was the subject of an ABC Primetime investigation in 1991. Turns out little has changed since then.

Wearing the requisite high-dollar pinstriped suit, there was Mr. Tilton, grinning like a Cheshire cat and enthusiastically promoting his new book “Hot to Be rich and Have Everything You Ever Wanted”, which, by the way, can be yours free of charge TODAY! Um, yeah. Anyway …

Interspersed in Tilton’s religio-mercial were everyday people sharing what they’d do if they had more money, such as “buy a car” or “get a private jet,” after which Tilton was back on the set, waving the Bible and emphatically promising that God wants us all to be rich.

Now, I’m no theologian, but I distinctly remember several places in Scripture where the pursuit of worldly wealth is, let’s just say, not encouraged. And yet we’ve been conditioned in our culture-even within the Church- to believe that God is interested in our monetary prosperity as we are.

This reminds me of a similar premise I hear quite often in my work with disordered eaters: God wants you to be thin. Several well-meaning people have been known to jump on this train, peddling programs that promise that God is as concerned with body size as we are. One book, titled Weight on the Lord: A Daily Devotional Book for Those Who Desire to Be Slim for Hi8m, even implies that achieving a certain body type is a way to please God. Because, after all, God wants you to be thin. But does He?

Does God look down on us from heaven and make judgments about our bodies? Does He notice if our butts look bigger, our stomachs more rounded than those portrayed in magazines? Does He have a host of angels at the ready to come to earth and whip us into the shape we desire, if only we can pray hard enough for such divine intervention?

Well, I have bad news and good news on this front. The bad news: No host of “Fit Club” angels waiting in the, um, wings. The good news: God does see and care about our struggles-even when it comes to our weight. It’s just that His perspective is different than ours.

While we’re busy obsessing about the outward shape of our bodies, God is looking deeper, into the pain, shame, and fear that shape who we are on the inside. This is the stuff He’s concerned about-the stuff He wants to heal.

The truth is, neither riches nor thinness-nor any other human endeavor, for that matter-will ever bring us the happiness we seek. Good thing we know the One who can.

Constance Rhodes is the found and president of FINDINGbalance, Inc., which has launched a video-on-demand website for eating and body image issues at www.findingbalance.com.