September 20th

Surfing the web this afternoon, I came across two requests for help on a website designed for that stuff. Just as a quick side note, no, I do not normally visit those self-help sights; it just happened that one caught my eye, so don’t worry, I’m not always “on” in Pastor mode.
Anyway, it struck me that two folks, in fairly rapid succession, and with no apparent connection, should both be curious about how to lose weight quickly and easily. I guess it’s a pretty common thing; I too have constantly been battling the bulge, but I’ve been trying to do it by watching what I eat, exercising, and generally trying to be careful and take care of myself.
These folks, however, wanted easier, quicker solutions. One person wanted to lose 30 pounds in 10 weeks, something that is only possible if you absolutely starve yourself, or get some professional surgical assistance. There is no healthy or non-surgical alternative. That’s all there is to it. The body can only do so much to change, and losing that much weight in that little time is absolutely outside its normal abilities.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other opinions out there. Lots of folks offered unhealthy alternatives, like weird diets, pills, alternative medicine or crazy exercise regimens. Like believers in some bizarre religion, each spouted the benefits of a particular diet, supplement or work out plan, even though each of those schemes reads like a bad infomercial or advice from a snake-oil salesman. What’s worse, they are giving their bad advice as if they are authorities, when in reality they have little training and no real qualifications. Well, that’s what happens when you ask for something without expecting to pay for it. Mind you, there are enough charlatans that are perfectly willing to take your money if you are willing enough to get bad advice and pay for it, too.
For me, whether it’s weight loss or any other topic, I try to stick to folks with recognized, well published credentials. It’s a lot safer, a lot smarter and in the long run, a lot cheaper to pay for good advice once, rather than having to overcome the more than likely bad physical and financial repercussions of bad advice.
That’s why I stick to the Bible and the Presbyterian Church in Canada for my spiritual advice and guidance. I know that those are two reputable sources with long histories of success in helping people lead better, healthier, happier and more successful lives. The Bible is a great source of teaching, inspiration and comfort. The PCC’s assorted doctrines offer a clear plan for living based on years of expert and inspired study and interpretation of the Bible by a great cloud of witnesses whose own lives demonstrate the effectiveness of the ideas they present.
I realize that these sources of advice might not be as exciting as the opinions one finds on the internet, but on the other hand, they’ve been very helpful for a lot longer than Internet advice has been around, and when push comes to shove, a Bible still works even when the power goes out. AT least that’s the way I see it.