I was reading the Word of God and it told me that our bodies are a “Temple of the Holy Spirit.”  I gasped in horror as I realized that I had become a “CATHEDRAL.”

When I first started traveling to preach I was a size 8.  As the years went by, the Indiana blackberry pies, Arkansas gravy, Alaska fried fish, Montana late night beef with cream soups and the ice creams in Arizona all buried me in weight.  Every state in the United States has its specialty and I didn’t miss one of them!  When traveling abroad, people are also very generous to bring me their delicacies, which I have always gladly enjoyed!  The long story short is this:  I turned into a size 18 and it didn’t really bother me. 

I am walking in a miracle and I usually feel great.  Then one day, I became uncomfortable – so I did the next reasonable thing, I decided to lose the weight.  I would go on a diet Monday after a preaching tour and it wouldn’t last long.  I just didn’t have any motivation.   My daughter saw me eating a chocolate bar on a Tuesday and said, “Mom! You are on a diet.”  I said, “Yeah, I know, I started yesterday and finished today!”  Why didn’t somebody tell me that Chocolate was not meat!

When my daughter and I would go grocery shopping, I would start following the “skinny people” and see what they were buying, and I’d buy some of that; but, most of their stuff was gross!  Besides, we started getting weird looks from people.  Of course, my daughter is a skinny beautiful twirp!

When I came to understand that I was a “Cathedral” and not a “temple” or “little country church,” I knew I needed to do something.  Following a “program” wouldn’t work for me because of my travel schedule, so I decided to ask for God’s help.  I called it the “Brain Diet.”  Mostly, eat what God made. Whatever you know isn’t good for you, don’t eat it.  Of course some stuff is good for you until you eat a wheel barrel full of it and then it’s not good for you anymore and vice versa.  Oh, you can eat only one scoop of ice cream and not a bowl…….. who would have known?  I decided that God DID make ice cream and a few other things and let myself have them with discipline. 

It was amazing how out of control I had gotten.  I don’t really know how it happened, I guess I just got lazy and quit paying attention.  You know there is only so much food you can eat between the hours of 2-4 am before it shows up on another day as an unwanted visitor!  I have always drank a gallon of water a day (an old good habit left over from my days of taking handfuls of medications and steroids for my CF and painful lung) and with so much ministry, drinking all that water became hard to do.  It seemed like it was all stacked against me. 

Sometimes you need help and there isn’t any.  I told my husband, Martin, that I really had to lose weight because God had gone and made it Spiritual on me and it was showing a lack of discipline in my life and I couldn’t allow that…………. and then the whole Cathedral versus Temple deal was really bugging me.  So, I asked this Italian man to make some of his own meals and leave me out of it.  He loved making the food.  Pasta, pasta, pasta.   I reminded him that I love desserts and I can’t have anymore cookies for awhile.  He always brings me cookies!  One day when I walked in the door, he said “Don’t come in the kitchen because me and the kids are baking cookies!”   I told them, listen, “I can smell the cookies from outside.  The whole thing about ‘Don’t come in the kitchen’ doesn’t work unless you went to the grocery store and BOUGHT them, but you are BAKING THEM!”

I got down to a size 12 basically through trial and error, torture and horror.  God was pulling me, but it was uphill. Then the Lord gave me “The Vision of the Church and the Bride." (to read it, click here, or for a printed copy e-mail Brenda or call the office)  It was a two-month ordeal for me being wrapped up in this vision of the Bride of Christ.  I watched in gut-wrenching disbelief as she turned away from Him because of her need for the things of this world.  Her lack of discipline was sickening and what was worse, is that I could relate to it because of my lack of discipline over my body!  It changed me forever.  It changed how I consider ministry, the Lord, His people, the lost and my fat undisciplined body.  It wasn’t funny anymore......

So, I got back to the “Brain Diet” and starting being as fervent about honoring God with my body as I had my spirit, soul and mind throughout my life.  When I made my mind up, He truly helped me.  I was so hungry some times, I could hardly stand it.  I decided that if we pay attention to our symptoms, we will lose our cause.  My cause was greater, for I had considered it Christ’s.  My body was acting like a spoiled brat, and so I treated it like one. I ignored the little “fits” my body was throwing!  It all became a great challenge to meet the Lord even in this, the mystery of weight gain!  It's not everyone's quest, but when He makes it ours, we have to own it.

The Lord prevailed and I am grateful. The point is to be a disciplined vessel unto the Lord Jesus that we might be honorable before Him and useful to Him in this great work that He has given to each and everyone one of us.  So, I give you the "Cathedral Challenge!"  Do it for Him, because it does matter.  He loves you no matter what size you are, THAT is something you need to always remember.  When it's your time and you are ready, Jesus will guide you and empower you as you accept the Challenge! 

Psalms 27:13   “I would have fainted if I would not have believed to see the Lord in the Land of the Living.”

May we fit into that land when He presents it to us!