How Linda diets

When we were teenagers my cousin Linda shared this advice about dieting: "You have to like the feeling of your stomach grumbling." I tried it and it really worked! The change of perspective was effective in turning a normally unpleasant experience into a motivator.

Nowadays I have no trouble with my diet, but everybody has trouble of some kind or other. You may as well expect it: "In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). And I have found my cousin's counsel transfers well from the dieting domain to the spiritual domain: "You have to like the feeling of your soul being in a trial."

Don't get me wrong, I am no masochist. I am only saying what Luke said about Peter and his friends after they got beaten up for talking about Jesus:

"Then they left the presence of the counsel, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name" (Acts 5:41).

Learning to look at your troubles (while you are still in them!) as opportunities for passing the test of faith and for proving before God and the angels that your faith is genuine (1 Peter 1:7) transforms any miserable situation. It is all part of the "being transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). And it is why Peter is able to say, with a straight face, that you should "rejoice" in trial (1 Peter 1:6).

This doesn't mean it's fun to be in a trial. It only means that the cognizance of what the trial really is in the spiritual realm (an opportunity for faith to prove itself) is the "joy set before you" (see Hebrews 12:2) that will make the trial bearable and will motivate you to keep clinging to God and keep obeying. Jesus had to live life the same way, and He set us an example.

So whenever you feel that grumbling in the tummy, or you are caught in another trial, tell yourself, like Linda did: "Good. This means something good is happening." It is having "the mind of Christ."