Shema (Den)

Whenever I attend church, my pastor has a funny little tradition of asking the congregation to recite the Jewish Shema (from Deuteronomy 6:4) with a little Christian twist: “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elehanu, Adonai Echad; Hear o’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. Amen.” Christians will likely recognize that Jesus spoke similar words (Matt. 22:37-39). This post is meant to take a look at the bold and underlined area, which at first, appears to be two commands – love God, love your neighbor. But I would like to propose that there are, in fact, three commands – you must also love yourself. If you do not know how to love yourself, you will fall short of loving your neighbor and your God.

What does that have to do with being fat? Well, I asked myself that very question. I don’t think I really have been loving myself in these last couple of decades. When I overeat, I am not loving myself. What am saying here…God doesn’t love fat people. NO! Of course I am not saying that. What I am saying, however, is that I do things to myself that I would NEVER do to my neighbor or my God. I eat too much and then feel guilty, sad, ugly, self-loathing, self-defeating, and self-destructive. I make all sorts of excuses for my poor behavior, and I often push my own care into the future. “I can start that diet and exercise tomorrow, for today I feast!” Then, tomorrow doesn’t come, and I am in the same spiraling cycle of destruction.

Now, I’ve asked myself. Should I love my neighbors as I love myself? I don't think that is in harmony with the Shema. I would never intentionally tear-down someone’s self-esteem like I do to my own self. I would never tell someone to delay feeling well and whole. I hope, rather, that I would encourage that person, love that person, and do whatever I could to help that person. I would motivate, uplift, share that person’s struggle. I would do anything for the ones I love. For my son, I would die. Yet, through my hideous eating habits, my ten year old son - love of my life - has learned to be like me. If I had known how to love myself, then surely I could have loved him better and not shared my destructive habits with him.

So, in honor of this epiphany, I say this:

                Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind;

                Love your neighbor with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind;

                Love yourself with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind;

God dwells in all of us, and loving others and ourselves is the reflection of loving God.

Here’s to a powerful and inspired week of meeting goals, challenges, and opportunities with faith, love, and understanding!