Skinny Glutton

“…concentrating all our efforts on gluttony of Delicacy, not gluttony of Excess. Your patient's mother…is a good example…She is a positive terror to hostesses and servants. She is always turning from what has been offered to her to say with a demure little sigh and smile ‘Oh please, please…all I want is a cup of tea, weak but not too weak, and the teeniest weeniest bit of a really crisp toast.’ You see? Because what she wants is smaller and less costly than what has been set before her, she never recognizes as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others” (The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, 2001, p87-88, originally published in 1942).

Here Screwtape coaches Wormwood on the power of using food to tempt his person. Using Wormwood’s person’s mother as a good example, he describes how someone might take only small amounts of food, but be so obsessed with delicate eating that her belly dominates her life.

While we normally define gluttony as eating in excess, C.S. Lewis makes a compelling case that gluttony of delicacy is just as destructive.

In our world today we have fat gluttons and skinny gluttons. There are carnivore gluttons and vegan gluttons. There are bodybuilding gluttons and supermodel gluttons. And maybe the worst ones are the foodie gluttons.

I love enjoying God by enjoying His gifts, and some might even call me a foodie (but probably not a bodybuilder or a supermodel). Scripture even says, “My son, eat honey because it is good, And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste; So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul;” (Proverbs 24:13-14a NKJV). Eat honey because it is sweet to your taste. Why? Because it reminds you that the knowledge of wisdom is sweet to your soul.

God teaches us through His gifts, and food is one of those gifts.

But when you start using food to make yourself better than others, you’re doing it wrong. You might be skinny, but you’re still a glutton.

What to you think?
Joseph