Just like a miracle, only not.

I was diagnosed with Diabetes about three years ago. I was in the hospital for a minor surgery to remove a lump. The nurse came in and asked me how much insulin I was used to shooting, and I stared at her with a blank look. She almost called a code, but finally I said something along the lines of, "what are you talking about?" and she knew I was still breathing.

"How long have you been a Diabetic?" she asked.

"You tell me!" I answered. She acted as if she had just spoiled a big surprise or something, and in fact she had. I had no idea.

That both explained a lot of things which had been bothering me physically, and scared quite a bit of the life out of me at the very same time. I was in the hospital for just over a week, and then I began a serious program of not eating anything. I figured out that it was food items which seemed to be giving me the most trouble, so I eliminated them from my daily diet. It was simple, didn't take a lot of planning, thinking or any of that sort of thing. I had a hard time maintaining that regimen for very long though, so I finally went to Weight Watchers and started to eat again.

They gave me some point value as a max, but I seldom got even close to it. They said that was bad, but I was more afraid of a deadly disease than the the lady behind the counter. She couldn't have been over 110 pounds: I was sure I could take her in a fair fight, and I wasn't the least bit afraid to stoop to an unfair fight if I had to. I began to lose weight. Imagine.

And then I added walking to my daily list of things to do. I got up to just under 5 miles of walking, five days per week. And I started parking as far away from stores and other destinations - with the idea of walking just a little bit here and a little bit there. I walked to church - just a half mile. I stopped asking other people to go get me things - I would run downstairs and out to the warehouse myself at work, and I would get up out of the chair and get my own whatsit at home whenever I needed to.

I began to feel better, too. Amazing. You know all those cranky people who tell you that you should eat less and exercise more? Well, it turns out that they know a thing or two. I was always afraid I would get cranky if I lost weight, but it turns out that my Diabetes went completely away, and somehow not living under the threat of a deadly disease made me happier, not sadder. Go figure.

Why am I typing all this? Well, for one thing I would like to prevent any of you from having the same problems. Think you can carry around an extra thirty pounds and not have it catch up to you? I hope so, for your sake. But for most humanoids, extra fat carries the risk of extra death. Just sayin.'

I finally got so nice and skinny that people couldn't talk about much else. It was a real drag. "Hey! Look at you! You're not as much of a fat slob as you used to be!"

Ok, it may only have sounded that way to me - they were actually very complimentary and supportive. They all wanted to know how I "did it," and they were universally disappointed when I would say, "diet and exercize."

I think that they all had hopes that I had found a magic short-cut or something. No, I was a poster boy for good health. I could walk 5 miles without breaking a sweat, I did so five days each week, I could stoop and bend and do things close to the floor again, life was good. I had a little rowboat, and I would take it down to the harbor and get a wonderful workout from head to toe. Sweat, heavy breathing, the whole thing. But then it happened.

I don't know the exact date or time, but at some point I started to eat again. And I slowed the pace on walking. I stopped going to the harbor with the boat. I stopped taking people to the lake with our family boat. I started driving to church, and I knew it was really bad when I parked close to the door at In N Out instead of walking from the outer edges of the parking lot. I was back. But I didn't blow up right away, nor did my Diabetes come racing back. I guess I figured that somehow, I was now immune. That was a very bad thought.

Fast-forward two years. I have gained most of the weight back, and guess what? My blood glucose level is beginning to climb. The lesson? We all think that we are special, and in the eyes of a loving Heavenly Father we are. But to the extent that we think we can do silly things like eat anything and everything and not get flabbed out? Sit all day and night and stay healthy? Can't work. OK - maybe for a teenager or somebody in their early twenties. Those people make me sick. But just wait - it will get them too.

And the amazing thing is that our spiritual life is the very same. Slack off on reading and studying the Word? Go without praying? Skip worship? You WILL get spiritual Diabetes, and it is as debilitating as physical Diabetes. I know. I have had both.

But today is a new day. Join me?