CHOOSE TO SHINE

Choose to Shine

How would you feel if there were a way to shed every additional pound and achieve the ideal balance in a single day? Set aside your doubts for a moment and bear with me as we explore this idea together. A recent study claims that American people invest over 60 billion dollars each year to drop pounds, including gym memberships, weight loss products, and programs. Almost two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. The math is simple: Most Americans consume more calories than they use. All the fad diets, fasting periods, and custom foods do not appear to move the needle for most of us. If we do succeed, the kilos can come back with interest as soon as we revert to our original negative behaviors. The additional costs for medical care related to obesity were estimated at $173 billion in 2019. The cost of absenteeism related to this problem ranges between $3 billion and $6 billion dollars a year. That does not speak to the reduced quality and quantity of life, the pain, the emotional impact, and any related side effects. This is clearly a major issue for many Americans and a challenge for our entire nation.

I am not a medical professional, so I am unqualified to discuss surgery versus shots. I am not a registered nutritionist, so any discussion of dietary plans would exceed my competence. I am not certified as a personal trainer, so advice about anabolic versus catabolic exercises will not be appearing here. I cannot even speak about the effects of improved sleep health on helping one shed pounds (but you can certainly do your own research on each of these). So, what is this big secret that you have not yet been able to guess which can eliminate unwanted weight? Further, what crazy sort of plan can make that happen in one rotation of the Earth?

The truth is you already know about it. The weight to which I refer does not register on your scale at home. It is the weight of the sins we have committed against Hashem and against our fellow people. Those certainly weigh us down, even if they do not increase the size of our clothing or slow us down physically.

Now that we know the true topic, how do we get rid of them all, especially in one day? We cannot possibly make amends for everything we have ever transgressed. Can we hope to even begin an honest discussion with ourselves, much less with Hashem, to own up to where we have lapsed or even failed? How can we imagine settling the account, becoming pristine, shedding all that burden? It’s not like we can just walk away and wash our hands of everything we have done, the pain we have caused, and the destruction we have wrought. The world just does not work that way.

To compare, imagine that I was to call each of my many credit card companies to tell them how sorry I feel for spending all their money during the prior year. Even if I promise to never do that again, do you think they might let me off the hook for my balances due? Will they let bygones be bygones and wish me a nice day? More than likely, I can expect an unpleasant call or five from their collections department.

Fortunately for us, that is not the way Hashem runs His world. He loves us more than we can comprehend. He patiently waits for each of us to return to Him until our very last breath on our dying day. We are completely confident that our sincere prayers and true repentance, especially on Yom Kippur, are accepted completely. We complete that awesome and holiest day of the year in joy and confidence that the weight of our sins has been removed completely, and that we have been restored to a clean slate.

May each of us be worthy of this incredible opportunity to return to our life purpose, to serve Hashem wholeheartedly in everything we do, always. I wish each of you a year filled with sweetness and fulfillment