Dig.  

Uncovering the Idols that Control Our Choices 

Introduction

Have you ever experienced a moment when you park your car and realize you’ve just driven with no mental consciousness of driving?  Your car somehow operated on ‘autopilot’ while your mind worked over something completely unrelated to the task that carried you.  You turn off the vehicle and think to yourself, “How did I get here?”

That trippy autopilot thing is exactly what has happened to our holistic health culture, and it encompasses a timespan that’s a lot longer than the ten-minute drive home from the grocery store.

Historically, we went from hunters and gatherers to drive-thru aficionados.  We went from farmers to tech gurus.  We went from teens who rode bikes around town, to teens with driver licenses who drive the 1.5-mile jaunt to school.  We went from family fishing trips to family trips to the movies with buckets of butter-soaked popcorn and beverages and snacks full of sugar.  We went from playing with neighbors in backyard dirt piles to playing video games, alone, in dark basements, virtually connected to people we may or may not actually know.

A study provided by the National Library of Medicine (Church et el., 2021) explores the trends in labor and physical activity over the last five decades.  Primarily sedentary jobs have replaced what used to be physical labor thereby lowering our bodies’ caloric expenditures while our food consumption increased.  Obesity, cholesterol levels, sugar levels, joint pain, and other chronic pain can all be positively impacted by daily movement.  Unfortunately for us, our jobs, conveniences, relationships with technology, and calendar obligations have crafted a culture which has removed our daily movement at every turn.

Not only is our movement decreasing, but our caloric intake is also at an all-time high.  The CDC reports that portion sizes have increased significantly over the past two decades, driving us to consume close to 30% more than we would if we were simply addressing our actual dietary needs.  When combined with a drastically lowered amount of daily activity (and therefore lowered caloric expenditure), a 30% increase in caloric consumption is devastating to our holistic health.

In 2010, the Kaisor Family Foundation reported that children ages 8 – 18 were spending an average of 7.5 hours per day in front of a screen.  When totaled, this is nearly 114 full days per year spent in sedentary, passive entertainment.  Can you imagine how much that has increased in the last twelve years since that study?

Reid Health recently published a post-pandemic article stating that since lockdown began, adults spend an average of 19 hours per day behind a screen.  19!  That’s the entire day apart from sleeping.  The article notates the long list of adverse health effects of extended time in front of a screen, including, but not limited to, interrupted sleep patterns, lowered executive brain function, lowered caloric expenditure, impaired social capabilities, and higher instances of mental health challenges.

A lot changed in our culture while we were driving home on autopilot, and unfortunately nearly none of it is working for us.

I spoke with Dr. Erik Hayes, a professor from whom I had the pleasure of taking kinesiology and nutrition classes during my undergraduate years.  He has a doctorate in Human Bioenergetics and has studied and taught in the health sciences field for close to thirty years.  In both illuminating and summarizing humanity’s current state around character and behavior change, he said this: “The reason we don’t change, is that we don’t actually intend to.  The only thing keeping us from true behavior change is the fact that we don’t really mean to make it.”

We don’t change because we don’t truly desire change.  We don’t have a lifestyle choice problem.  We have a character problem.  A character problem emboldened by a culture in which it is increasingly difficult to live healthfully.  

Consider our fickle and fleeting New Year’s Resolutions – Exhibit A.  Every year we make them and every year they are forgotten before Punxsutawney Phil pokes his nose into February.  

But I think there’s some good news.

When complacency in lifestyle choices becomes a matter of stewardship; or a question of obedience; or a deliberate act of worship – the way we play the game may change.  We won’t be working for a culturally proposed resolution.  We won’t be trying to attain a certain step count.  We won’t be pairing intrinsic value with the number on the scale.  And we won’t be brutally eliminating entire food groups from our daily diets.  

We’ll be working toward stewardship.  Obedience.  Mindful worship.  

Those goals aren’t better than our step goals, they’re higher.  

They’re more deeply connected to who we are as whole humans.  And they’re tied to a purpose that may actually move us to make some changes.

In redefining the game, we’ll use a different strategy.  One that means more to us; that will capture our attention longer; that will pull us back again and again because the stakes are higher than we ever thought they were.

The facts still haven’t changed.  We need to eat mindfully, we need to move regularly, we need to ditch some time in front of the screen.  We need to sleep well.  We need to drink water.  We need to socialize with actual humans.  We need to expend more calories than we consume.

It sounds simple, but we all know it’s not.

In the chapters ahead, we will work together to understand what this can look like on a day-to-day basis.  Together, we will uncover the idols behind the behaviors that keep us from choosing the things that edify us.  Deliberately, we will start to pursue those things we know will make a lasting impact on our holistic health.  And we will encourage each other to chase the things we know more effectively steward the gift God gave us in our bodies.

The discoveries we will dig up are more expository than you think.

They’re more relevant than I could have ever imagined.

And they’re so impactful, we may just dislodge the boulder that crumbles a few of our idols to the ground.

Here’s to digging with you.  

Nic Ford