Healthy on the outside and on the inside

It's interesting to know how you change the way you look at things. I have hardly bothered how my stomach looked like, whether it was round, flat, big or small or if it was even there in the first place. Grocery shopping is now taking extra time as I keep comparing if particular bread has more vitamins than the other and less carbohydrates. Cheese should have less fat and curd should have 0% fat. Coca cola, my favorite drink is now hardly consumed nowadays as it contains more sugar. I don’t consume readymade packaged food anymore as it contains more salt and in turn pushes me to get home early to cook regularly.

I have never been so conscious about my health in my entire life. When I was a kid, my parents told me that you should be thankful for what you have to eat. Eat with a thankful heart and don't be choosy. We were not allowed to say that something was not tasty. There are lots of children begging on the streets and they don’t get enough food and some are even starving. I think eating healthy and being fit is one of the last things you want to think of when you see people around you suffering and the size of your tummy is the last thing you want to be conscious of.

What made me take such a decision? My colleague is a regular fitness freak and he hits the gym on all the working days. I sit next to him and started noticing the selective food he takes. When I bring something that has extra fat, he immediately notices it and warns me of it. Exactly at 5:30 PM he makes sure that he is in the gym and I see his dedication there as well. Monday its the chest and Tuesday is for the back, Wednesday is for the legs, Thursday is for biceps and triceps and Friday is for shoulders. His schedule makes sure that you don’t miss any part of the whole body. You don't want to have a good chest and shoulders and chicken legs, he tells me. I slowly started imitating him as well.

We have the right to consume all the things, but not all are beneficial for us. If you have a good appearance, people can see it and complement you for that. The hard work outs in the gym and the sacrifice of not eating the tastiest fatty meal results in a good outward appearance.

The more I thought about this, I felt the need for the guarding of the heart, something that goes on the inside and something that is grossly ignored. It's very easy for the inside to be corrupt these days. The seduction that comes from the media in the form of visuals and the lyrics of a song shape the inside and needs to be avoided. It seems harmless initially but in the end it cripples the way we think. We don't like to talk about the things done in private as we don't want rules for the inside and it is termed as personal life.

Pleasure is something for me, which has to be dealt with cautiously and with care. With illegitimate pleasure comes meaninglessness to life. Stolen waters appear to be sweeter but it is not so but however leaves you emptier. I feel that the inside should be taken care of more than the outside. Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. Jesus said:”Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder…”. With God given boundaries, we can enjoy fulfillment in life and live a beautiful life on earth.

When the inside is taken care of, it is evident when you are with the person. You can feel the compassion, thankfulness, warmth and the love. There are some people I long to have fellowship with and these are the special people that rejoice when you rejoice and weep when you weep. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I am strongly convinced that true love is something that comes from a pure heart and love comes from God because `God is love`.

Of hurt, pain and tears

It was an unusual sight at the suburban bus stand in Mysore where I had come to meet a friend of mine. It had been quite some time since I met him. There were lots of buses waiting to ply passengers to their respective destinations. As I waited for him to come, one could feel the busyness of the place with hawkers trying to sell their eatables to the passengers and a bus conductor advertising to the other waiting passengers to check if they needed to go to the destination where the bus was heading to, Bangalore.

"Start the bus immediately and let us go. How long do we have to wait?" shouted one of the passengers from inside a waiting bus.
"Its already several minutes past the scheduled time" joined his co-passenger.

"I am waiting for the remaining seats to be filled and we cannot start the journey with empty seats still remaining" countered the bus conductor. I immediately could recollect my personal experiences and frustrations when I used to travel in one of these buses.

Just then, my friend called me up to let me know that he has just reached the bus station. We had been out of touch for a long time and it was a breath of fresh air to meet him again. He recently got married and we share a common understanding of life. I am open with my joys, struggles and weaknesses and so is he and his honesty is something I like in him. We quickly decided to go shopping and get a wedding gift for one of our common friends.

We rushed across the bus station maneuvering across the honking buses when suddenly I could feel a bus approaching towards me.

"Dont run over me again!" I yelled . The driver luckily did not hear it and my friend smiled and off we ran to the other side.

Together we completed our shopping and we were on our way back. We signalled a passing auto-rickshaw to stop. He seemed to be in quite a pace and applied the brakes stopping the vehicle at a distance. We ran and got near the vehicle and my friend started bargaining with the driver who demanded Rs 30.

"Rs 25 is the amount we paid for coming from the bus station to this place. We will pay you only the same price" said my friend.
"No sir, but the return trip is of a longer distance, as it is one-way traffic" argued the driver.

We agreed with the fare and soon we were travelling when suddenly my friend started a casual conversation with the driver.
"May I have your name, sir?" my friend seemed to ask,
"Ramesh" came the reply.
My spoke in a different language which I could not understand. I was staring at the busy traffic roads and trying to breathe in fresh air when suddenly I could understand what my friend was saying:

"Jesus Christ took all our curses at the cross. We need not pay for them again and we just need to believe in Him. For the sins we did with our hands, His hand was nail-pierced, for the sins we commited with our legs, his legs were nail-pierced and for our bad thoughts, His head was full of thorns. He had paid the price for them all with His blood"

Then he continued"May be you are going through a tough situation in your family and your family is broken, don't worry there is hope..."

All of a sudden, tears started running down the driver's face to such an extent that the he had to stop his vehicle and wipe his tears. It seemed that he indeed was going through a tough situation at home. We continued our journey and finally reached our destination. The whole journey would have lasted just 5 minutes but I was stunned that a well built man in his 40's with a big moustache would have a broken heart desperately needed to be mended. After my friend finished with a consoling word of prayer, one could only be overwhelmed and feel drawn to be a solace to the hurting, the sorrowful and the poor.

Jesus christ said" Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest". There is no place that is safer than being in and experiencing His presence.