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If you are on a special diet you face the reality that you have to eat different than before, and chiefly, eat different from other people.
If you have to go on a sodium-free diet or are diagnosed a diabetic and have to watch your sugar intake, you are aware of the difference the special diet makes.
My wife and children eat a special diet. They are gluten-free which is a big difference maker. But some of them also are dairy-free and our youngest has an egg-allergy. One of the things that makes a special diet so hard is being different from everyone else. You can’t fit into the norm of society’s eating habits. You don’t want to be different, but you always are different.
Ethnic foods create differences that are easily observed. You could travel to a land where the people may look very similar to you, but you could tell they were very different when you sat down to the table with them. When I have travelled the world, I recognized my differences because of the food.
All of this is pretty basic stuff that we all can agree upon, but you probably don’t realize the full extent of your uniqueness, or weirdness, until you are the one who is different with a special diet. Until you are the traveller looking at that fish head thinking how am I going to not offend them, or you are the gluten-free child at the pizza party, or the diabetic who can’t eat the desserts at the ice cream supper! It is at that point that the true difference hits you. Your diet is also a daily reminder of your commitment and your difference.
Now I have written all of this to make a point, this it seems to me is one of the chief reasons God gave Israel dietary laws. The Jews are famous for not being able to enjoy BBQ or Catfish like we enjoy in the Southern US. They were forbidden from eating all kinds of animals. God gave them two chapters of lists of food regulations (Lev. 11; Deut. 14). Over the centuries people have debated why God gave these laws to the Jews. Why were some animals chosen as clean and other unclean? After studying and teaching on this topic, it seems to me the purpose involved the distinctive nature that diets create. Their diet shaped the identity of the Jewish people. It made them unique amongst the nations. It was a way of always creating a difference between them and the Gentiles. It was a daily reminder of their calling and purpose.
We are free from these food restrictions through the gospel of Christ, but the lesson from them and the distinctive nature and identity that diets create is still a powerful truth for us. We are to be different. We need daily reminders that our identity and purpose is different from those we live and work with in this world.
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Using this in our bulletin this week. Wonderful application, brother!
This is a very good application of how we as Christians are to be different.
In the different category of eating, I would add those who have chronic acid re-flux cannot eat a big meal in the evening. This makes most of our evening fellowship meals challenging. For those with acid re-flux, a lunch fellowship meal is more practical.
I really enjoyed this article. My boys have food allergies, so we are constantly reminded that we are different. When I feel sad that there are times they cannot participate in an activity due to their dietary restrictions, I try to focus on the fact that they are learning that they don’t always have to do what the rest of the world does.
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