Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith (Through the Eyes of Faith Series) by Nicholas Wolterstorff & Malcolm A. Jeeves & Myers PhD David G

Author:Nicholas Wolterstorff & Malcolm A. Jeeves & Myers PhD, David G. [Nicholas Wolterstorff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-06-03T16:00:00+00:00

PART 10 / Motivation

Chapter 20

TO ACCEPT OR TO CHANGE?

O God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

REINHOLD NIEBUHR, “THE SERENITY PRAYER,” 1943

A n affirmative answer to this great prayer begins with the wisdom to distinguish what we cannot change from what we can. Such wisdom is now rapidly accumulating, providing us with a clearer understanding today than ever before regarding which aspects of our behavior are easily altered and which not.

Serenity to Accept What Cannot Be Changed

In some respects, we seem to be less changeable, by force of will, than has been supposed. Take body weight. It has long been presumed that obesity results from gluttony, from a failure of the will, or from a personality problem such as repressed guilt or hostility. If, indeed, being overweight stems from gluttony, then losing weight should require no more than self-discipline and a trustworthy guidebook. Believing this, would-be dieters annually spend more than $30 billion on diet and fitness guides and fat remedies.

However, the physiologists and biopsychologists who study hunger and obesity tell us of bodily mechanisms that make permanent weight loss frustratingly difficult. Genetic influences on slimness or obesity are revealed by twin studies (identical twins are far more similar in body type than fraternal twins) and by a tendency for adopted children to resemble their biological parents more than their adoptive parents and siblings. Moreover, our body fights to maintain its “set point” weight, much as a thermostat maintains room temperature at a set point. When a person diets, and body weight begins to drop, the person’s metabolic idling speed decreases, too, enabling the body to maintain itself on fewer calories. If the diet continues, the body’s 30 billion or so miniature fuel tanks—its fat cells—may empty, but they refuse to die. Instead, they cry out, “Feed me!” by initiating biochemical processes that trigger hunger and make the dieter more responsive to external food cues and more vulnerable to eating binges.

Although it may frustrate those who weigh more than they would like, the whole system is designed to store up energy in us in times of abundance that will see us through times of famine. It does so with an astonishing precision that far exceeds anything you or I could achieve by conscious calorie counting. If your weight is within a pound of what it was a year ago, you have kept your average daily energy intake and output within ten calories a day of one another. Keep everything the same and add a single carrot a day and in ten years you will have gained thirty pounds. This remarkable energy-control system is yet another of the wonders concealed within the most ordinary aspects of life. In ways the psalmist could not have known, we are indeed “wonderfully made.”

It therefore comes as no surprise to those who understand the bodily forces that fight to maintain

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