Hey friend — have you ever found yourself the week before Lent staring at a bar of chocolate (or maybe eyeing your morning coffee) thinking, "Maybe if I just give THIS up, everything will finally feel right…"
And then that quiet question surfaces: Is this really what God wants from us… or is this just another diet hiding in spiritual clothes?
Welcome to a fresh season on Nourished to Bloom! 💛
We're kicking off something deeply intentional this Lent — our 40 Days to Food Freedom series. And no, this isn't your typical Lenten reset.
This isn't about finally "fixing" our eating habits. It's not about proving our willpower. It's not about stricter discipline.
It's about deeper freedom.
Together, we're going to look beyond what's on our plates and ask a more courageous question:
✨ What actually has power over our hearts?
Drawing inspiration from St. John of the Cross' powerful image of a bird tethered by even the smallest string 🕊️, we explore how our attachments — to food, control, scrolling, perfectionism, weight loss, comfort — can quietly keep us from rising toward God.
Lent isn't a self-improvement challenge.
It's an invitation to reorder our loves.
Here's what we'll begin uncovering in this first episode:
✨ Spotlight on Attachments – Where do we turn when we're stressed, overwhelmed, or insecure? What feels "non-negotiable" for our peace?
✨ Redefining Fasting – True fasting isn't punishment. It's detachment. It's learning to enjoy good things without being ruled by them.
✨ The Rope Image – Whether it's a tiny string or a thick rope, any attachment that holds our peace hostage keeps us grounded.
✨ A Gentle Self-Inventory – We'll begin noticing what we cling to — without shame — because awareness is the beginning of freedom.
✨ One Small Act of Detachment – Not to prove strength, but to create space. To say, "Lord, You are my center."
By Easter, the goal isn't perfect eating habits.
It's this:
🌿 Less power for food. 🌿 Less authority for fear. 🌿 More space for God. 🌿 A heart that feels lighter and freer.
Throughout this 40-day journey, we'll untangle diet culture, emotional eating, body image struggles, and the attachments that quietly shape our choices — so that our plates, our habits, and our hearts can be reordered around Christ.
Because food freedom isn't about indulgence.
It's about becoming untethered.
Ready to loosen the rope with us this Lent?
Hit play, grab your journal, and let's begin your Attachment Inventory together.
And remember: Beauty held is the seed. Beauty shared is the flower. 🌸 It's your time to bloom.
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
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The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
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Welcome to 40 Days to Food Freedom Lenten
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series, y'all. This podcast series isn't about
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a diet reset. It's not about cutting out
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carbs or conquering cravings, and it's not about proving that
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you can finally be good with food this Lent.
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It's about something so much deeper. It's about identifying
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the ropes those attachments that are quietly
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tethering your heart to food, to control, to
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scrolling, to weight loss, to comfort, to
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perfectionism. Y'all, the goal of this 40-day journey is
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not stricter discipline. It's really about deeper
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freedom. Over the next 7 weeks, we're going to explore what it means
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to fast in a way that actually creates space for the Lord,
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space to see what it is that we're clinging to, Why do we get
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to Lent and always give up the chocolate? Space to feel
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what we've been numbing ourselves with. Space to allow God
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to gently reorder our hearts, to reorder
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our lives. Y'all, true fasting isn't about
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punishment. It's about detachment. And detachment
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isn't deprivation. It's really about learning to enjoy
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good things without being ruled by them. It's about
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loosening and cutting that rope, whether it's a thick one or just
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this tiny string, so that we can rise. Y'all,
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by Easter, this goal isn't that you will have the perfect eating habits
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or to finally feel like you can trust yourself around certain
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foods. The goal is that food has less power,
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that fear has less authority over your life,
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that your peace doesn't rise and fall with what's on your plate
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or what you're scrolling through, that God
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is more clearly at the center of your life. And that
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is true freedom. And that's what this Lent is meant to lead
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us towards. So over the next 40 days, we're not just
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giving something up. We're going to ask a better question:
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what has too much power over your heart?
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And then we're inviting Jesus into that space, not to shame us
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but to free us.
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Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom podcast, where your faith meets your
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health. I'm your host, Kara Trocta, a registered dietitian and
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certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection
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with your body, your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them
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both. In a world filled with noise and
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confusion about food, health, and body image, this podcast
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offers truth and healing from a Christ-centered perspective.
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Together, we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover what
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it means to truly care for ourselves through joyful
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nourishment of mind, body, and soul. We're here to dive into
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the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of
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our Christian faith. With every episode, I'll be cheering you.
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On, offering insights, inspiration, and practical tools to
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help you heal your relationship with. Food and embrace the
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beauty of your. Body as a temple of the Holy Spirit with
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confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ.
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Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness,
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one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation,
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the teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to
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fulfill. You were made to bloom,
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to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit
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for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body,
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feed your soul, and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're
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in the right place, and I'm so happy you're here. Welcome
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to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred
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invitation to thrive.
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Hey there, welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom podcast. Happy to be
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spending some time here with you again this week. I
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am suffering from allergies. Our mountain cedar and
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our mold are so high right now. It's like nature is just trying
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to kill me. So I apologize for the funny voice, for
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any coughing interruptions, but we are making it through.
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And this week will start us off for
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our Lenten series, and I'm really excited about this,
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to offer this 40 Days of Food Freedom Lenten
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series but with a much deeper spiritual connection
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to it, um, time spent reflecting on,
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on Lent and on fasting and really, I think,
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digging deeper into it, right? Because every year when Lent
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rolls around, there's these moments where we all start thinking,
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should I give up chocolate again? Should I give up coffee
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again? Should I give up sugar? Or maybe this is the year that
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I'll finally break that habit, or
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Maybe this is the Lent that I finally get this all under control.
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And I don't think we're actually asking the
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best question, because if we're honest and we're
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asking these type of questions, it really can lead to Lent
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starting to feel like this spiritualized version of a diet.
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And so before you decide what you're giving up this year, I
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want you to pause with me for a second. And kind of reflect
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on these questions instead. When you're
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stressed, where do you turn?
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When you feel inadequate, what are you reaching for?
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Or when life feels uncertain or out of control, what makes you feel safe
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again? All of these
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things right here, they might be identifying this rope.
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This rope that is keeping your heart tethered, that is
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not allowing it to rise to the Lord.
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It's a beautiful image given to us by Saint John of the Cross that we're
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going to explore deeper. But the whole,
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like, goal, guys, of Lent— it's not this 40-day self-improvement
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challenge, it's not a willpower test,
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and it's for sure not this holy detox to
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have us avoid all of our quote-unquote sugar foods.
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Right? But go deeper. When you think about giving up
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chocolate, when you think about giving up coffee, what is—
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what is like the real thing that makes you think that you
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need to give these things up? Is it fear? Is it needing to feel
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control around these, these foods or these
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items? Like, what is the deeper
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thing that is holding you down?
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And that's what this Lent is all about. It's this 40-day invitation to
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reorder our lives. And Saint John
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gives us this beautiful image. He says, a bird tethered to the
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earth by a small string or a thick rope cannot fly.
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It doesn't matter whether the attachment is large or small.
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If it is tied, it cannot rise.
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That's what our attachments do. These things that
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just again entrap our hearts. Whether it's this,
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this small thread or this really thick
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rope, they tether us. And it's not always
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something dramatic, and it's not always something that we would really
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readily identify as sinful. Sometimes it's just often
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these like quiet little distractions or these,
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these little attachments that don't
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necessarily seem bad, or they don't necessarily seem like they're
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holding us down. You know, things like food or
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scrolling, desire for weight loss, our,
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our comforts, a desire for control,
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needing to focus on productivity, the need
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to feel good enough. Like, these things aren't inherently
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bad things. Like, we know that food is good, it nourishes us.
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We know that rest is good, our body needs it. We know that our
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health matters. We know that technology can serve
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us. But our attachments are, are these things that
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are honestly often connected to good things. But
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when a lesser good becomes our primary source of
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comfort, when it rules our identity
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or establishes a false sense of security,
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it starts to function like this rope.
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It's no longer just a gift from God. It becomes
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something that we cling to, and we can use Lent
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to expose what it is that we're clinging to.
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Fasting really isn't about proving spiritual
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strength, that, okay, I can do this, that I can,
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you know, not have
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these things, or that I can— it's, it's It's
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not about willpower, and it's not about us. It's about
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fasting helping us realize that we need the Lord.
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It's about creating this space, space to see what we're
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reaching for, space to see what we've been numbing ourselves
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for, and notice what has too much power in our lives.
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And when we fast, it allows these things to surface.
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Right? If you give up sugar and all you can think about is sugar, that's
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revealing something. Maybe a distorted relationship with
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sugar. If you step away from scrolling and suddenly feel
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restless, that's revealing something. That maybe
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you're numbing yourself. Fasting shines light
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on our attachments, and that light is the Lord.
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He's saying that I am right there with you in these times
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of these many sufferings. Not to
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shame us, but to, to really free us.
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If we can dig deeper into Ignatian spirituality, it teaches us
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something really profound. We were
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created to praise, reverence, and serve God.
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And so everything in our lives is meant to help us move
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toward that, that— and we are meant to
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use these created things of the earth to help us
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lead us toward God, and then detach from
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them when they are not leading us towards God.
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So if our relationship around food
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in our body is disordered, if it's— if these things include
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food, dieting, um, your body, your phone
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scrolling, um, you know, productivity, all
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of these things It's really not a question
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this Lent about what should I eliminate, but it's really digging
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deeper to understand what has too much authority in my heart,
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right? Are these things that are in my life, am I using
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them to lead me towards God,
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or is it disordered? Are they having
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too much authority in my heart? And if we can identify that, then
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we can see that we need to detach from them because they are not
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leading us closer to the Lord. Because
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giving up chocolate while still fearing chocolate isn't
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freedom. And like white-knuckling through something for
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40 days while still obsessing internally over it isn't
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detachment. Because freedom looks different.
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Freedom is being able to enjoy something without
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clinging to it. It's being able to abstain from
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something without panicking or fear that you'll never have it again.
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Freedom is knowing your peace doesn't rise and fall with what
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is on your plate. And that's what fasting
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can do when it's understood correctly. It's
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about making room. It's about loosening the rope. It's about, you
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know, cutting those threads a little bit at a time
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so it can reorder us. So when we willingly
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abstain from something, even if it's something that's good, we're
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saying Lord, you are my center,
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not this thing. Because I think we all have those moments where
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these things become our center.
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And so when we can really shift our perspective
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on fasting and shift our perspective on Lent, that it's not
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just to give up something to give up something— because sometimes I think we
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even choose things like chocolate or coffee because maybe we like
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know that we can do it. And so that isn't helpful either.
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Nothing has transformed when we choose kind of this easier
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thing. So I think taking a moment to really understand your
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attachments, your motivations towards
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these things, really helps you shift and say, Lord, you
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are my center, not this thing. And when God becomes
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the center, everything else in your life finds its proper place.
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Everything else becomes ordered. Food becomes food.
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Phones become tools. Bodies become gifts.
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Comfort becomes occasional, not ultimate.
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And this is why things like making peace with food can
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actually be a powerful Lenten fast, because
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sometimes the rope isn't the actual brownie, it's the fear of
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the brownie. It's the, it's the attachment to wanting
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control around food. It's the
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belief that if you just manage your food perfectly, you'll finally
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feel secure about it. What if this
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Lent, instead of fasting from food, you fasted from fear around
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food? What if you practiced detachment not through
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restriction but through trust?
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And so this week, if you're really starting to think about
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what your Lenten sacrifice is going to look like, I want to invite
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you to do an entire— an an attachment inventory.
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So just take some time and kind of go through these questions and gently ask
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yourself: where do I turn first when I feel
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overwhelmed? Am I turning to food? Am
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I turning to scrolling, online shopping?
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Where do I seek relief?
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What feels non-negotiable for your peace?
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What would make you anxious to give it up?
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And then notice without judgment.
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Awareness is the beginning of freedom.
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And then just practice one small act of detachment
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each day. Maybe that's delaying a comfort by a few
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minutes. Maybe it's stepping away from a screen.
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Maybe that means like completely logging out of Facebook
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or Instagram so it's not so easy to just click on it.
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Maybe it's eating without, you know, compensating with
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exercise. Maybe it's
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sitting in discomfort without immediately trying to fix it
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or numb it. Not to
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prove your own strength but to invite the Lord in and say,
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Lord, you are my center and you can help me.
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This helps to loosen that string because the goal of
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Lent isn't to become more rigid, it's to become more free.
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The goal isn't to perfect your behavior,
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because I think we do that too— we try to clean ourselves up before we
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present ourselves to the Lord— but that's not what he's asking us
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to do. He's asking us to come to him
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messy, you know, confused,
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you know, with all of our, our problems and our struggles,
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the, the obsessions that we have, the false idols that we
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have, just bringing it to him and then
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allowing him to reorder our hearts so then we can reorder
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our lives so that we can rise
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And that's really what this series is going to go through these next
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40 days. It's not about stricter rules.
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It's about getting to deeper freedom.
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So I'm so glad you'll be joining me for this 40 Days
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to Food Freedom Lenten series. Each week is
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going to cover a different topic around this idea of freedom.
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So can't wait to dive into, into this with you.
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Remember, beauty held is a seed, beauty shared is the flower. It is your
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time to bloom.