{"id":390,"date":"2009-11-15T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-15T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/drnorrischumleysatisfiedlife\/2009\/11\/is-god-there.html"},"modified":"2009-11-15T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-15T01:00:00","slug":"is-god-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/drnorrischumleysatisfiedlife\/2009\/11\/is-god-there.html","title":{"rendered":"Is God There?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Q: <i>I wonder that God doesn&#8217;t have enough to do without hearing about my<br \/>\nweight problem. So many crises, so much death and turmoil in the world,<br \/>\nso many <u>real problems<\/u> to deal with.  How can I possibly ask for help for something I have done to myself?<\/i><\/p>\n<p>A: First of all, I could never for a second presume to speak for God. But<br \/>\nI also would never set my own limits on what is important to God or<br \/>\ndiminish the awesome gift of my life to say or think that I am not<br \/>\nimportant enough (as a child of God) to ask Him for help.<br \/>\nI agree with you &#8211; I caused my overweight problems. I own them, and<br \/>\nacknowledge I &#8220;did it to myself.&#8221; It was an innocent self-abuse,<br \/>\nthough. I couldn&#8217;t stop myself from overeating and being sedentary. I<br \/>\nhonestly didn&#8217;t have the power to help myself.<\/p>\n<p>Most importantly, the biggest mistake I made was to rely on something<br \/>\nmaterial for my sense of self, and satisfaction. I cheated myself by<br \/>\nbelieving that food was my safety and salvation from the pain of<br \/>\nliving. Put it in one way &#8211; I worshipped food as a graven, false image,<br \/>\ninstead of God. I put desserts and second-helpings in the way of my connection to my Creator.  Isn&#8217;t that a <i>real problem<\/i>?  It sure was to me.<br \/>\nI was near death; I was in a major crisis.  I was dying.  I was eating and smoking myself to death. I was committing slow suicide. <\/p>\n<p>Was I not<br \/>\nimportant to God? Did He not want to save a life, and bring one lost<br \/>\nsoul to His side?<br \/>\nGod did save me. I did ask for help in desperation, and got infinite<br \/>\ngrace and peace in abundance. Was I wrong to do it? I leave that to God<br \/>\nto decide. But now I sure want to honor the gift of life I have been<br \/>\ngiven &#8211; I do it by helping others, and continuing to look to God for<br \/>\neverything in my life. And God continues to help me, and others, in<br \/>\namazing graceful generosity &#8211; no matter how big or small the problem &#8211;<br \/>\nGod is here, right now and ready. Just ask.<\/p>\n<p>_____<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kripalu.org\/program\/view\/DE91\/the_divine_experience\"><br \/>Want to Know God?&nbsp; Let&#8217;s ask for help together at my next retreat, &#8220;The Divine Experience&#8221; at Kripalu in western Massachussets.&nbsp; Sign up today, spaces are limited.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: I wonder that God doesn&#8217;t have enough to do without hearing about my weight problem. So many crises, so much death and turmoil in the world, so many real problems to deal with. How can I possibly ask for help for something I have done to myself? A: First of all, I could never&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9,3,4,10,5,17,21,12,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet","category-happiness","category-health","category-joy","category-lifestyles","category-prayers","category-religion","category-spiritual-weight-loss","category-spirituality","category-weight-loss","category-wellness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is God There? - Dr. Norris J. Chumley Satisfied Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/drnorrischumleysatisfiedlife\/2009\/11\/is-god-there.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is God There? - Dr. Norris J. Chumley Satisfied Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q: I wonder that God doesn&#8217;t have enough to do without hearing about my weight problem. So many crises, so much death and turmoil in the world, so many real problems to deal with. How can I possibly ask for help for something I have done to myself? 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