I’m a middle-aged mom. I can’t stay ahead of the grey hairs like I used to. I haven’t found a wrinkle-reducer that lives up to its promises. Celery juice may detox my body, but unwanted pounds hold tight to my 5’3” frame. Part of me is still looking for a quick fix, while the other part of me knows any quick fix is no true fix.
Collectively we’re all still searching. The diet industry nets over $200 billion annually and the anti-aging industry is projected to exceed $300 billion next year. Maybe, just maybe, we think, the next new thing really will be it.
For some, the miracle-worker appears to have arrived. Thanks to social platforms like Instagram and TikTok, the once top-secret weight loss secret of celebrities is sweeping the country. In the form of a shot intended for those with Type 2 Diabetes, the injectable drug under the brand name Ozempic (also packaged as Wegovy) fast-tracks significant weight loss for those willing to pay the $1,300 monthly price tag.
The False Promise of the Idol
The problem—the first problem, I should say—is this sudden obsession has produced a supply shortage for diabetics legitimately in need of the drug, creating an ethical dilemma worthy of its own conversation with our teenagers. Here’s a chance to talk about what loving our neighbors by putting our own desires aside might look like practically. But in our vanity and self-absorption, goodwill towards our fellow man seems not to matter to those willing to endure nausea and forsake God-given hunger cues in exchange for thinness.
Misusing this shot—a golden calf not unlike the idol worshipped by the Israelites in Exodus 32—is as ridiculous as bowing down to a statue of a cow. On the surface the Israelites may have been worshipping an animal. But this “god” of their making, a weak and lowly calf, was symbolic of their desire for an easy-to- control god, a god they could rule, in essence allowing the Israelites to be their own god. Eve fell for the same lie in the garden. The fruit became the promise of something better, something more. Grab hold of it, she thought, and you will be like God.
Is this not the same promise of the Ozempic shot? At one level we crave weight loss, a lighter body, a seemingly more beautiful physique. But peel back the onion skin and we see that like Eve, like the Israelites after her and all of humanity since, the allure of something that will secure, satisfy, and sing our praise is ultimately what we’re after. If only I had_____ (fill in the blank), all would be right. I would be content and happy. I wouldn’t need anything else.
In this edition of the story, we’ve bowed down to the perfect body, believing a flawless, god-like appearance is the golden ticket to perpetual bliss. We spend exorbitant amounts of time and money obsessing and perfecting the “savior” we think will hand us heaven on earth. Of course, the pounds lost, the wrinkles zapped, the body parts altered, are never enough. And yet what we see on social media and in our social circles appears more real to us than what God’s Word says about our bodies, so we keep chasing that false god.
When we as moms chase and believe these lies, we are telling lies to our children too, especially our daughters. When we were teenagers, we had magazine images defining the ideal body for us, but we weren’t bombarded with constant images and messaging like teenagers are today. Moms, let’s consider our own struggles to shoot down the enemy’s lies. When our daughters hear and see us misnaming our bodies as flawed, we only reinforce false worship.
The True Promise of the Savior
I don’t know about you, but there is nothing I want more than for my children to find their life in Christ. As a parent, I am well aware that if Christ is not life for me, something else is. Wherever I seek treasure, whatever I value most, will shape my children too. More than my words, they see where I fix my eyes.
Am I looking for this shot to deliver me? Or to a diet plan to save me? A certain dress size? The covetous stares of others? Compliments and “likes”? Will these things tell me I’m worthy? Will it be enough?
I do want more—for me and for my children. But the “more” offered by a quick fix will never be enough. The false allure of perfection and everlasting bliss this side of heaven will never arrive.
The crazy thing is, I don’t have to go chasing after the enoughness I crave because it’s mine already in Christ. In him I have the eternal smile of my heavenly Father, who created me in his image and named me very good and didn’t quit there. He put my shame and imperfection onto his Son and wrapped me in his righteousness so that I could have the one thing I need to be fully accepted and approved. I am accepted because the Great I AM declared it true, yet I’m still looking to an ever-changing measuring stick as if it is the ultimate authority.
The answer to our body image struggles will never be found in perfecting ourselves. The solution to the hungering for more can only be found in the one who was perfect for us. Everything else is fleeting, a golden calf that instead of giving us what we think it can, ends up controlling us.
Lord, would you free us from this enslavement? Would you help us to see the empty promises of the things we look to for god-like status? Would you quench our thirst for trying to find life in these false sources? Would YOU fill the hole in our souls? Turn our eyes upon you—your worth and work for us, and your unfading promise. Cause the allure of this world and its values to fade. In you alone, Lord, will we experience true rest. In your rest, there is no demand that we be anything more than the creature you perfectly shaped as your image-bearer for your glory, not our own.
