I’m a sucker for reality TV shows. Though I’ve only watched a few episodes (and am watching the finale right now) I really love The Biggest Loser.
It’s incredible that these people have the opportunity to exercise and diet with professional trainers for a few months. They change their eating habits, learn what to do when tempted and begin to do what’s best for their health. Soon they shed massive amounts of personal baggage and weight and literally become new creations. It’s inspiring isn’t it? It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The spiritual connections are obvious. These people have chosen to kick their “fat lives” to the curb and be something thinner. They have chosen a new life. They are not afraid of trials but confront them. They are not scared of looking stupid but continue to be honest with who they are and who they need to be. They are disciplined, determined, fierce. How did they get this way? They realized there was a better life available to them and they were consistently loved, challenged and pushed by their trainers. Trainers who believed that under all those layers of neglect was a person who would look good in spandex.
I am always convicted when I watch this show. I start to think about how hopeless it must feel to be obese. People that struggle with their weight are totally written off by the world. They are overlooked, despised and neglected. To be honest with you, most times I believe that people who are obese will always be obese. Sure, there are a few people (like those on the show) who somehow get a second chance and fight for a healthy life, but they are few and far between. Aren’t they?
Moreover, I have realized that I look at the lost like I would a group of tremendously fat people. I tend to think that the only way I can help them is to tell them how fat they are. I guess it’s possible for the lost to chose Christ and fight through all their baggage but only a very few of them will live a spiritually healthy life. And the only ones that do get healthy weren’t that fat or lost in the first place. Those who are really fat have no chance at all unless they have been “picked” (or if you prefer, “predestined”) to be on a reality show like The Biggest Loser in the first place.
LIES! THESE ARE ALL LIES! It’s embarrassing that I have ever believed them. Where fat people are written off by the world are the lost not written off by the Church? Are they not overlooked, despised and neglected? The best thing we can do is be healthy, run along side them and love them, believe in them and say, “Christ came so that you can have a new life!”
You who are saved from sin and judgment—who have accepted Christ—have been accepted by God. And because of this we have committed to share a message of reconciliation. Did you know that? Well if you believe you are a new creation you need to own the second part of that scripture; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So as Christ’s ambassadors let us commend one another to spiritually eat and exercise. Let us not be afraid of the workout. Let us look at the lost not as a hopeless mass of fat people but as a new creation that is waiting to be discovered. Let us be reconciled to God, accept his righteousness and do nothing more and nothing less than bring his message of reconciliation to the world and believe that everyone has the capacity to accept it. Let us look beyond the weight and sin and love the person who will look good in spandex.
Youth Department