Comedy/Music Comment: Chonda Pierce. A Piece of My Mind

Chonda Pierce is a hilarious Christian stand-up comedian and singer whose performances have the same effect as those of Michael Jr. whom I have mentioned in several earlier posts. While making the listener laugh uncontrollably, she carries a sword, and thrusts with that sword to deliver her message. She is a warrior and an evangelist of the first order. All of her comedic routines are sermons.

Chonda talks about subjects not normally considered to be funny, especially for a Christian comedian. Her topics include menopause, depression, clothes which for some unknown reason no longer fit, aging parents, annoying neighbors, and family dysfunction. Nothing is off limits. Why should it be? Christians  live in the real world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZ4MLc4th8  menopause

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LdGs-eioMQ  depression

Chonda Pierce. A  Piece of My Mind, INO Records, 000768303917

The Elevator

Below is one of my short stories, in this case a 266 word micro-story entitled The Elevator.


We often fail to recognize opportunities when they are presented to us.  How many times have you said to yourself, "I should have said ..."?  This is frustrating, but when the opportunity missed is one in which the Gospel could have been presented the situation is not only frustrating, but tragic.


                                         THE ELEVATOR

            Hospital elevators are lonely, anonymous places. People don’t really see each other there.

            When I got on the elevator on the eleventh floor, I immediately saw the massively obese white man with a stubbly three-day old beard.  His knit shirt fit very snugly and his vulgarly exposed navel was an enormous gaping cavern in which a small dog could have hidden. He was a nascent heart attack.

            I tried not to stare, but his labored breathing wouldn’t let me ignore him.  He had the pained wheeze that extremely fat people get, as if just standing up was a struggle.  He sounded as if it would kill him on the spot if he ever were forced to run.

            “What floor?”

            I said, “One.”

            The fat man’s stubby finger pressed the button.

            “Six.”

            I turned around; the voice had come from behind me.

            The well-groomed black man was tall and handsome. I hadn’t noticed him as I entered the cabin ... perhaps because of the fat man.

            “Six.”

            The fat man didn’t move.

            “Six.”

            Nothing.

            “Six.”

            I realized what was going on and, in a flash of anger, my hand flitted over to the button panel and pressed number six.  I thought about confronting the fat man, but I hesitated.  I knew he wouldn’t care what I said and I wondered if the black man would be embarrassed.

            When we got off the elevator, the fat man waddled off to work on his heart attack.  The black man never said anything.  He quietly got off the elevator and vanished into anonymity.  I went to my car, unhappy with myself.

Is Obesity a Sin?, Part 2

In no particular order:

1.     Anything which more than momentarily distracts you from God should be stripped from your life.

2.     Your body is the Temple of God and be maintained with reverence, just as you would maintain your church sanctuary.

3.     If the first thing you think when you wake up each morning is food, you may have a problem.

4.     Food is often not the real problem.  Often food is the “medicine” used to dull the pain of some other issue.  The pain is only temporarily relieved and more food is needed.

5.     If you think something is a sin and still willfully engage in the activity, it is a sin for you.

6.     Increased weight can predispose a person to Type 2 Diabetes, stroke, heart attacks, sleep apnea, blindness, and neuropathies in the extremities leading to amputations.

Links with various viewpoints:

http://calorielab.com/news/2006/08/29/lard-have-mercy-the-christian-obesity-epidemic/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/firm-faith-fat-body-study-finds-high-rate-of-obesity-among-religious-49568/

http://www.christianity.com/christian%20living/features/11622588/ 

 

http://conservapedia.com/Overcoming_obesity_with_the_aid_of_Christian_faith

http://www.religiontoday.com/news/food-for-thought-on-america-s-obesity-problem.html

http://www.cherylcope.com/obesity-in-the-church

http://www.fatandproud.com/ 

Is Obesity a Sin?, Part 1

Last Saturday, I was at the amusement park, Six Flags Over Georgia (with my grandchildren, YEAH!).  The park hosts about 2,000,000 visitors a year and is spread out over 290 acres (117 hectares) which require a large amount of walking on some hilly terrain.  The temperature on Saturday was around 95 - 98 F (37C) with a heat index over 105F (41C).

I, like many Americans, am above my medically ideal weight, so all the walking was good for me.  What I noticed, though, were the many people two, three, four, or even five times their healthy weight.  It was beyond obvious that these people were suffering in the heat.

Many of the large people were huffing and puffing, with red faces.  They had wet towels wrapped around their necks, and were lurching and stumbling forward as they walked.  Many had resorted to walking with a cane or riding around in the little battery-powered carts normally reserved for persons who are unable to walk.  Surely this is not how God intended for them to live.

I know. “God made me this way,” and there really are rare persons with metabolic disorders who must be under medical care so that they will not continually gain weight.  The word to remember in this is “rare.”

Weight is one of the very “hot-button” issues.  Look at the internet chat rooms.   Any discussion of weight quickly degenerates into sarcasm, mean-spirited self-superiority by thin persons, excuses and rationalizations by overweight persons, name calling, someone knows a fat person who eats very little,  someone knows a skinny person who eats enough for an elephant,  someone knows a person who has turned their concern over weight into an unhealthy obsession, obesity is due to gluttony and gluttony is a sin,  obesity and gluttony are two different things,  some are defiantly fat, some say God is indifferent to your body size, spme say God wants you to stay at the size he gave you,  denial (I’m not fat, just pleasingly plump),  the reason I overeat is because I can’t drink or smoke.  The arguments and insults go round and round.

I believe that obesity CAN be a sin, but I am not sure exactly where the line is.  This is clearly not a black and white issue and the border one crosses into overt, willful sin may actually be different for each person. Romans 14:13-15, 22-23.

Tomorrow, in Part 2 of this post., I will list several facts and observations about the Christian and obesity.

Large People

"Given their numbers, it appears that God loves large people as much as the small."  Charles Henderson , Christian internet blogger