http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/comfort-food-for-the-body-and-soul-faith-snack-12010/ http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/comfort-food-for-the-body-and-soul-faith-snack-12010/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:26:03 +0000 admin http://feedingfaith.com/?p=166 It was cold outside on Wednesday, so before I sat down at my desk to begin my workday I went to the kitchen, pulled out my enamel cast iron Dutch oven and began the ritual of making a pot of soup. I find something very comforting about a pot of soup simmering on the stove, it’s perfume wafting heavily through every room in the house. It’s not just the promise of a delicious meal that I find assuring: it’s the memories called to mind by the scent of aromatic vegetables sautéing, the plop, plop sound of the hearty soup bubbling in the heavy pot, and the feel of a warm soup mug in my hands. Certain foods transport us to a place that feels like home—a place where we feel nourished and supported and safe. At Bible study on Wednesday night, I was reminded that there are such places in our spiritual lives as well. We’ve been doing a survey of the New Testament and this week the lesson was on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Much of this letter is a testament to Paul’s ability to maintain an attitude of peace and joy that transcends circumstances. Each member of the class chose a favorite verse and shared how it has reassured us in times of struggle. We were reminded that when we feed our faith and not our fears it’s like comfort food for the soul. It takes us to that place where we are certain that we are safe, and that God’s grace will sustain us through even the most devastating circumstances. When we comfort our spiritual selves by feeding our faith, it causes us to live joyfully, as did Paul. Properly fed faith will produce a deep and abiding joy that is not happenstance, but constant and overflowing like a river. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again—rejoice”. Feed your faith each day. And on those chilly winter days, look below for a great healthy recipe (234 calories per serving) that will comfort and feed your body too!

Colorful Black Bean Soup

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups onion, diced
1 1/2 cups carrots, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
3 large cloves garlic, smashed
1 cup bell pepper, yellow diced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or to taste)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/3 cup fresh basil cut into thin strips
I 14 ounce can of unsalted diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups corn, frozen kernels
10 ounces canned tomato sauce
3 cans of Goya black beans
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (as cooking add more if needed)

Directions
In 5 quart Dutch oven heat olive oil over medium high heat.
Sauté onions and garlic until slightly soft but not brown
Add carrots, celery, bell pepper and sauté 2-3 minutes more
Add salt, crushed pepper and oregano
Add chicken stock, tomatoes, tomato sauce and black beans
Bring to a boil
Reduce heat to a low simmer
Simmer, stirring occasionally for 2 hours
Add fresh basil at end to garnish

Serve a small bowl as an appetizer or a great big ole bowl with cornbread and salad for a delicious comfort meal.

To make vegetarian use vegetable stock in place of chicken stock

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 ½ cups
Amount Per Serving
Calories 234
Calories from Fat 58
Total Fat 6.4g
Saturated Fat 1.0g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 489mg
Total Carbohydrates 36.6g
Dietary Fiber 8.7g
Sugars 6.5g

Percent of RDA*
Protein 10.4g
Vitamin A 65%
Vitamin C 44%
Calcium 8%
Iron 16%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

All recipes are original and created by Vivian Nixon. Nutritional details are an estimate and should only be used as a guide for approximation

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http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/an-example-of-the-role-of-faith-in-every-day-decisions-%e2%80%93-faith-snack-11310/ http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/an-example-of-the-role-of-faith-in-every-day-decisions-%e2%80%93-faith-snack-11310/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:22:31 +0000 admin http://feedingfaith.com/?p=136 I’ve learned that one of my food triggers is stress.  Running a small and growing non-profit organization is, to say the very least, stressful.  As the organization grows I am learning that one person cannot be director of development, director of programs, chief financial officer, grant writer, grants manager, and director of communications.  It’s humanly impossible.  The temptation is to try to do it all: A temptation to which I have succumbed in the past.  Recently I have found myself working 14 hour days again.  This has caused me to miss going to the gym at least twice since the first of the year.  Some nights I am too exhausted to cook, or even think about what to eat, so I find myself tempted to default to take out. Last night I reminded myself of the connection between my work behavior, the weight I gained the past few years, and my overall health.  I and began to think about all the things that I hope for my future:  prosperity, good health, community.  The evidence proves that when I put my work in perspective and refuse to let it control my life, I am able to live a healthier lifestyle.  I lose weight, I feel better, my blood pressure is lower and I am generally more at peace.  These are the things that will lead to prosperity, good health, and community.   Work will always be there.  Given the day-to-day priorities (routine and unexpected) there are some things that won’t get done each day.  I have to learn to be alright with that.  I have to learn to trust that I am making the right decisions about what’s important each day while still taking care of myself, maintaining my work ethic, and creating space for the things I envision for my future as well as the future of the organization.  By faith, I see it.  Through discipline and good decision making I will achieve it!

]]> http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/an-example-of-the-role-of-faith-in-every-day-decisions-%e2%80%93-faith-snack-11310/feed/ 1 http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/steve-harvey-a-true-testament-to-the-power-of-faith-%e2%80%93-faith-snack-11110/ http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/steve-harvey-a-true-testament-to-the-power-of-faith-%e2%80%93-faith-snack-11110/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:45:25 +0000 admin http://feedingfaith.com/?p=125 Sunday night I watched the Celebration of Gospel on BET.  Near the end of the show Sherri Shepherd, Donnie McClurkin, and Marvin Sapp paid tribute to Steve Harvey. One of the things I admire about Steve is that he has stayed true to who he is while allowing his faith to help him evolve into a better man.  That’s all any of us can do.  God does not require anymore from us.  Steve represents the power of the Gospel and his life defines truth faith.  He knows he’s not perfect.  But he also acknowledges that God has opened every door he has walked through on the road to success.  Jesus came to give hope to the hopeless and to show the way to those who are lost.  If we were all perfect we wouldn’t need grace.  Those of us who call ourselves Christians have no right to distort Christianity by judging other people based on things they do that we don’t like.  People are responsible for their own relationship with God.  Marvin Sapp sang a song during the tribute last night:  “He saw the best in me when everyone else around me could only see the worst in me”.   What a powerful statement!  And one I know to be true!  When I was arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to prison, everyone around me could only see the worst.  But I never lost faith.  I remained focused on the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  My faith not only got me through three years of prison, it has brought me to a moment of clarity about my purpose and an attitude of certainty that God will ALWAYS have my back.  The best is yet to come.  I am so glad that God saw the best in me.  He sees the best in you too.  Feed your faith – see what God sees!

]]> http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/steve-harvey-a-true-testament-to-the-power-of-faith-%e2%80%93-faith-snack-11110/feed/ 116 http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/feeding-faith-with-vivian-nixon/ http://feedingfaith.com/2010/01/feeding-faith-with-vivian-nixon/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:51:12 +0000 admin http://feedingfaith.com/?p=94

Initially this blog was going to be about food and fitness.  I had mistakenly left faith out of the mix.  I made many false starts beginning in January 2009.  I would eat healthy for a few days and then inevitably return to making poor choices.  I couldn’t figure out why.  I was happy with my career.  I had accomplished some long term goals that I set out to achieve in March of 2001 when I was released from prison. – Oh yes, for those of you who do not know me, I’ve made many bad choices in my life.  Some of those choices caused me to acquire undesirable societal labels (in addition to that of “fat person”) such as “felon, ex-con, and criminal”.  The shame of that experience alone has crushed many and might easily have crushed me, but it did not.  By faith I rejected defeat and shame and vowed to help others do the same.  The bible calls that “beauty for ashes” (Isaiah 61:3).  But I digress.   Back to my original train of thought…

I couldn’t understand why, after having overcome so much, I continued to be held captive, or imprisoned—if  you will—by my own body.   By June of 2009, I seriously considered weight loss surgery.  I made an appointment for pre-surgical screening. When I arrived the nurse practitioner gave me the gruesome details about the surgery and explained the rigorous and restrictive dietary practices I would have to observe for the rest of my life.  Even so, I signed on.  I began the pre-surgery detoxification regimen (which is a liquid diet) in June 2009.  Then something happened…..

As my body detoxified, my thinking process was clarified, and my faith in something both within and beyond myself was fortified.  I decided to look, not to the skillful hands of a bariatric surgeon to free me, from myself but rather to look to the God to whom I have always looked to release me from the emotional, spiritual, and physical prisons I’ve been in over the course of these 50 years.  “I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)

One thing I now know for sure is that my obsession with food has nothing to do with physical hunger. There is a deep and abiding need in each of us to connect to something outside ourselves.  We seek to fill that void with people and activity.  I believe that there is a place in each of us that can only be filled, and a peace that can only be found, when we acknowledge our limitations and relinquish control of the things we hope for while having faith that something beyond ourselves is working on our behalf.  Every bad decision I’ve ever made has probably been made in an effort to fill a void that I can never fill on my own.  The frantic search to fill that void has haunted me and its terror has taken many forms.

I often tell a story about an oil painting that hangs in my living room. It is not a cheerful painting.  Its color scheme consists mostly of muted grays and blues with little distinction between the background and foreground.  In the center of the painting sits a large clay structure that resembles an abandoned prison.  The building is surrounded by a series of ladders that seem to lead to nowhere.  The scene is very cold and very empty.  The sun is not shining.  The sky is overcast with clouds.  At first glance there appears to be no living creature in the painting:  no people, no vegetation, and no animals.

When I first saw the painting in a gallery more than 20 years ago, I felt drawn to it because I thought the artist had crafted an image that represents my greatest fears.  It was, to me, a concrete way to face those fears.  I stared at the painting for several minutes and gradually noticed that in the center of the scene there is a hunched over women walking toward the deserted building.  The woman (who is typically not noticed until I point her out to onlookers) appears to be searching for something.

I bought that painting more than 20 years ago because it served to remind me then, as it does today, to look in the faces of the people I pass by on the street and realize that they too are searching for things that they cannot yet see, searching for what lies at the top of ladders that seem to lead nowhere, searching for faith and hope.  The need for connections to that which can feed our faith does not discriminate.  It’s not limited to the woman in the painting—it is a universal and common human need experienced by people who live in the mountains of West Virginia and in the high rises of New York City.  It is a need felt by residents of the mansions of South Hampton and tenants in the slums of Baltimore.  It’s a need that is present in country clubs and homeless shelters, church houses and crack houses, state houses and jail houses, pulpits and pews.

Sometimes we meet that need by filling our lives with superficial activity and rituals.  We jump from one activity to another, from one vice to another, from one addiction to another, from one relationship to another, from one job to another, and so on, seeking the magic solution.  When we put our hope and faith only in that which we can see and touch disappointment is inevitable. Stock markets crash.  Towers fall.  Levees break. Institutions collapse. Mortgages foreclose.  Relationships fail.  It does not serve us well to live as though we can instantaneously see and touch everything we need and want.

I have been to the depths in my quest to avoid relinquishing control and acknowledging my human need for faith.  You name it, I’ve  tried it. I can hardly type these words through the teary mist evoked by both the memory of the pain attached to the struggle, and gratitude for the lessons I’ve learned and mentors who’ve guided me.

In August 2009, I became convicted in my spirit.  I was guilty of neglecting my body – the temple that houses God’s creation.  I made a promise to myself and to God.  “This is the day. It stops now”.  That’s a powerful declaration, I know. And I also know that declarations do not facts make.  So what makes me believe that I can change my life now after years of trying to satisfy every human need with physical food and tangible substance? A mentor of mine once said, “When the pain becomes greater than the reward- you will make a change”. Well that day has arrived. The pain of being overweight has overtaken the anesthetizing effect of the comfort foods I have craved all my life. I eat and I still feel whatever it was I was trying to eat away: lonely, rejected, unattractive, misunderstood, unloved – all the stuff that gets in the way of being the glorious creature that I was created to be. By faith, I have found the courage to peel back the layers and confront whatever emerges from the dark so that it may be swallowed up by the light.  I am not changing my life to be thin. I am changing my life to be whole. That’s the difference!

If I am to succeed in shedding the 125 additional pounds that keep me imprisoned in my own body, I cannot focus on food and fitness alone.  I must feed my faith.  I must feed it daily.   The challenges I encounter, the lessons I learn and the revelations I receive will be revealed in a series of weekly blog posts called Feeding Faith and daily tidbits called Faith Snacks.  I hope you’ll read, comment, and share.  Come and dine with me.  Feed your faith.  All are welcomed at the table.