Please Keep Calling Me

Driving home last week from a meeting with my new medical professional I received a beautiful understanding, thank You, Hashem! Let me explain.

I’ve been heading down the wrong path with my health for years. After the eye-opening meeting with my practitioner, I realized that Hashem has been calling me, progressively louder, for a very long time.

I’ve fought against the calls and the messengers – arguing that my diet is better / cleaner that the majority of US population. I don’t frequently get fast food, we buy organic when possible, and I don’t tend to overeat or eat particularly “bad” foods. Yet even with all of my arguing the health symptoms continued to plague me. In the last 6 years or so I’ve had 3 different doctors clearly tell me I need to modify my diet. I’ve also read articles, watch videos and listened to the Healthy Eating CD from Rabbi Brody outlining a healthy diet – where he clearly lists out the dos and don’ts. I always said “yeah yeah yeah, but look – my diet is not THAT bad!”

That is until last week, when I received the results from a wide panel of testing that was done two weeks ago. My practitioner (my messenger from Hashem) handed me a packet of papers and explained that, if I didn’t make a change, things could (Heaven forbid) get much worse for me. Right now, she said, we have a chance to change all of these issues naturally. Her words sunk in – message received and understood.

If you’ve read the Garden of Emuna then you’ll probably remember that Rabbi Arush explained that Hashem sends us messages immediately when we’ve strayed from the path. If we don’t have our spiritual antennae tuned in we may not hear the message. Hashem then sends us louder and louder messages (what we often interpret as tribulations) in an attempt to wake us up and bring us back.

I’ve always accepted this concept without much thought. What I realized tonight was what an amazing gift Hashem is giving us by continuing to call out, louder and louder, until we finally hear Him! Can you imagine if He only called out once, quietly, and if we didn’t respond He just let us go on our way… down the wrong path?! Heaven forbid – I shudder to think! The tribulations are a perfect kindness from a loving Father who wants us to hear Him.

Hashem has been telling me all along how I need to nourish this housing for my soul. I’ve known from a young age what foods make me feel good and what foods make me feel bad. When I ignored that knowledge and chose to eat the not-so-good-for-me foods, Hashem sent me louder messages via doctors. Then He sent me Rabbi Brody and his clear explanations of good-for-me foods and nutrition. When I still ignored the messages, Hashem made them louder and louder until I couldn’t ignore it any longer.

You see, the packet of papers that was handed to me today – was almost an identical “diet” as Rabbi Brody has so often prescribed through his articles, videos and CDs – especially the “Healthy Eating” CD. Foods that my (I’m assuming secular) practitioner thinks will help heal my health issues naturally…. The messages have finally been received loud and clear – Thank you Hashem for continuing to call me!

So, where does that leave me today? I quit the damaging foods cold turkey. I spent the last week detoxing from sugar, fighting cravings and coming up with new meal plans. It has not been easy but what I’ve discovered is so much of how I was eating was simply habit. I had go to foods that were not healthy for me but which I’d come to rely upon as my staples when hunger struck. Eating had been a mindless thing that was done as matter of course through the day… and from what my Rabbi has taught me, it is not the proper way to eat or fuel my body. Now, since my meals are all new creations with foods that I’ve always liked but consumed much too little of, I have to think and plan and prepare what I’m going to eat. There is time for consideration of the gifts of health, energy, healing and strength that Hashem provides through the food.

When I first reviewed the list of foods I shouldn’t eat I thought it was restrictive. Now I realize the physical, mental and emotional side effects those foods cause me are way more restrictive on my life than simply dealing with a food craving now and then. A week in and I’m feeling better than I’ve felt in a very long time – Thank You, Hashem!

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Jennifer invites you to participate in a regularly held Noahide on-line study group that reviews the garden series books of Rabbi Arush. You can contact her at jenniferjwoodward@gmail.com for dates and times.