For months we have had a huge jar of nuts. Did I mention it was huge? We didn’t want to eat it, but “it costs too much” to just throw away. Month after month it sat in the back of our pantry unopened. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Not quite. I love nuts. I love the taste of them, the crunch of them, and the hunger satisfaction that comes when I eat them. The problem is, nuts do not like me. Not only do I break out, but it also makes my blood glucose rise for hours and hours after I eat them. It does the same to my husband, and he has never been diabetic.
It’s the high fat content that raises blood glucose for hours, sometimes days after consumption. That rabbit trail aside, there came a day that I felt that I needed to get them out of the house….but what to do with them? It’s too wasteful to throw them away. They were purchased from a bulk bin, so giving them away or donating them is out of the question. Eating them is not the best choice, either. However, eat them we did. A little here, a little there. A little yesterday, a little today. A little doesn’t hurt, right?
Wrong. Insulin resistance that was reversed came roaring back with a vengeance. I cannot go back to that state of ill health. So, this morning, the rest of the nuts, which was at least two quarts found themselves unceremoniously dumped in the garbage. I felt relieved, and then, I berated myself for not doing that to begin with.
Why on God’s green earth have I been holding on to something that I couldn’t use? Because it cost too much to let go? Because it cost too much to throw in the garbage? Nonsense! It cost me every time I put a bite in my mouth, and it would have continued to cost me, perhaps to the point to causing the Diabetes Type II to return. I could not let that happen.
This made me wonder how many other things in our life do we hold on to, because it would “cost too much” to let them go?
How many harmful habits? How many destructive thought processes? How many passive aggressive attitudes and actions where in we lash out at other people with the intent of harming them, but not wanting to be obvious about it? How many times in our own pain and discomfort do we lash out at others intentionally causing them pain, because hurt-people hurt people? How many times do we make excuses for not doing what we know we ought to do? How long do we make excuses for continuing to do things we know we ought not to do? How many beliefs do we cling to? How many dogmas do we hold tight? How many doctrines do we refuse to release?
The Challenge
How many things do we hold on to that have long since passed their ability to help us and have crossed into the category of things that actively do us harm? Sometimes, we become like a dog with a splintered bone. We won’t let things go, even when they are hurting us. I ask you today, what is it that you are holding on to that you think “it costs too much” to let go of but is actively harming you every single day you hold on?
