In today’s podcast, Julie Lyles Carr discusses the importance of going against the crowd when it’s necessary for personal well-being, using the example of her son’s girlfriend, Anna, who has severe food allergies. Sometimes, going against the crowd isn’t about opposing something wrong or bad, but about doing what’s best for oneself. She also uses the illustration with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who chose to eat differently from others in order to honor God and maintain their health. Let’s dive in!
What’s New!
Monday Story:
- My son’s girlfriend having food allergies. Daniel, Meschach, Shadrach, and Abednego not eating what others were eating.
Tuesday Key Verse:
- Daniel 1:15 – At the end of ten days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food.
Wednesday Prayer:
- Dear Lord, when there is something that isn’t good for me but everyone around me is doing it, help me to be strong, to not give in to the temptation of doing what everyone else is doing.
Thursday Question:
- What is something that you know isn’t good for you that other people do?
Friday Fun Fact:
- Q: How many people in the United States have food allergies?
- A: 20 million.
Show Notes:
To get this week’s episode and daily text prompts, text the word Go to 89419.
If you are in Canada, text GodOnTheGo to 866-729-1065
Transcription:
One of my sons is dating this great girl named Anna. We love Anna, she’s awesome. And when Anna comes to our house, there’s some things that we need to do for her because you see, Anna has really severe allergies. She’s allergic to a lot of different kinds of nuts and different kinds of foods. And every now and then when my son and Anna are out on a date and they go somewhere to eat, well, something she’s allergic to will end up being in her dish that night, and ugh, it is no fun for her. It makes her really sick when she runs across something and eats something that she’s not supposed to. Now, what’s hard for people to sometimes understand is if they don’t have an allergy to something, if there’s something that doesn’t make them sick or isn’t the best for them, sometimes they don’t take it seriously When Anna says, Hey, I can’t have that in my food. But what’s important to note is that for Anna, it definitely isn’t something that’s good for her.
I’m Julie Lyles Carr, and this has God on the Go where we take just a few minutes to help you make the minutes matter. We have been looking at what it means to go against the crowd. It’s so easy to try to do what everybody else is doing. It’s so easy for that to influence the things that we do, the things we say, the way we think, the way we dress, the things that we think we need to have. And so, we’re taking a look at some different ideas on places where we need to go against the crowd.
So, I told you about my son’s girlfriend, Anna, and some of her food allergies. One of my daughters has different types of movies that she cannot watch. Now, it’s not that there’s something necessarily wrong with these movies, it’s just movies that are kind of stressful or are thrillers or something like that. It just stresses her out. It’s not good for her. I have certain things that I don’t read, not because they’re bad, but because I can have a tendency sometimes to compare myself to other people on some of these things that I read. And that’s not good for me. That’s not healthy. See, sometimes when we go against the crowd, it’s not because the crowd is doing something wrong or bad or they’re being cruel or they’re making fun of people. Sometimes we need to go against the crowd because it’s something that simply isn’t good for us. It’s not about what might be okay for somebody else. It’s about something that we know because of the way God created us wouldn’t be good for us.
Now, let’s go back to talking about my son’s girlfriend. Anna, here is a little trivia question for you. Do you know how many people in the United States have food allergies? 20 million. 20 million! That’s a lot of people. And if we were to say to 20 million people, no, everybody should eat all the same way. Everybody should eat all the same foods. Anna, you shouldn’t have allergies for foods because here are these people who don’t. And yet at the same time, here are a lot of people who do. See, sometimes going against the crowd means that you’re going to do what’s best for you, even though other people might not understand it.
It makes me think about in the Bible, in the book of Daniel, the four guys named Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now, we talked about Shadrach, Micha and Abednego and the fiery furnace a few episodes ago. Well, when Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego first got to Babylon, something really interesting happened. You see, they had been eating a certain way in their hometown. They had been eating in a way that was meant to honor God, and they had been eating in a way that lined up with how they believed they needed to live. Well, when they came into captivity in Babylon, there was a completely different menu. The people who were overseeing Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, here’s the food that we want you to eat. But they didn’t know what was in it. They didn’t know if it was honoring to God. They didn’t know if it would be best for them. And so, they said, tell you what. How about you just let us eat veggies and things like that and we’ll give it some time, and over time, you can then see if we are as healthy as we’re supposed to be. And so, the people overseeing them thought about it and they said, well, okay, okay, you can do that. Let me read this verse to you, Daniel one 15 says, At the end of 10 days, they, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. The king’s food was what the overseers had wanted them all to be eating. You see, they could have gone with the crowd. They were in a new situation and it was a very uncertain situation. But instead, they decided to go with what they knew was best for them, what God had shown them. That’s something I want you to think about this week. It’s so important to go against the crowd even when that crowd’s not being mean. If it’s something that God has created you for something better.
I would love for you to text the word GO, that’s G O to 89419, and we have all kinds of great things we can send you. Discussion questions and the memory verse and all kinds of stuff that can help you keep this conversation going about going against the crowd. God on the Go is sponsored by George Fox University, where each student will be known personally, academically and spiritually. I’ll see you next week!
