Back to the Past: Accountability 102

After a vacation of WONDERFUL food in New Orleans and a great time visiting my sons, one of whom cooks really well and the other who has a girlfriend who cooks really well, I think I’ve hit the wall with food. (Again.)

So, it’s back to the most successful diet I’ve ever done: writing down everything you eat and e-mailing it to a fortunate friend. When telling another friend I was doing this they said, “Just don’t write down everything you eat.” Which I thought sorta defeated the point. Whatever.

The first time I did this was when an extremely fit friend asked if I would do it with her. And I thought, hey, what could it hurt? So, I went along with this, counting every chocolate chip I shoved in my mouth (my personal recipe to keep me away from the milk chocolate).

She didn’t harass me, she didn’t scold me, she just read my daily confession of food. The only time she said much was when I wrote down that I’d eaten 2 Koegel vienna hot dogs for dinner. Which I still don’t think is criminal. Now, if I’d eater two buns with that, well that would be a different story entirely.

Not wanting to inflict this on the same person twice, I went in search of some other lucky victim. And you know what? It was tricky to find someone one willing. Mostly when I’d bring this idea up the dull silence followed by chirping crickets meant I’d struck out yet again. Finally, though, a new victim surfaced.

It makes me wonder why it’s so hard to find someone to walk with you even in this limited way. I have sought for years for a spiritual accountability partner, and by accountability partner I mean someone who is in the loop of my spiritual life in the same way as my diet life. I need someone to give me outside perspective on my spiritual growth in Christ so I stay on track much like I count my chocolate chips. (I finally have one, a spiritual friend, that is.)

If I learned anything from my first experience with accountability it’s this: we need each other far more than we realize. Not just in a surface way, but in a truly connected way. God created us to be gifts to one another. The writer of Hebrews says this way we encourage one another and will “spur one another on to love and good works.”

In this season of Lent, let us remember: Christ died for us to help connect us back with God and one of the benefits is relationship: connectedness to Jesus Christ and a special bond with one another.

 Be blessed~