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Are you willing to change? // Você está disposto a mudar?

Se você quer mudar o mundo, comece com você mesmo.
Mahatma Gandhi


As soon as I realized that being a nutritionist would be the hardest job on earth, just like being a Physical Educator, I said to myself: I give up. I cannot change a person’s heart. I cannot change a person’s lifestyle; because your eating’s habit is something that you have been building throughout your life. And I understand that the person has all authority over his own life and habit; therefore, the changing cannot come from outside, it must come from inside.

I have two things in mind here. One is Israel’s story. After Joshua had died, it came the time of the judges for Israel. They had no king or president. From time to time, a judge was raised up to judge the people. But whenever they were alone with their pagan neighbors, they started following their rules, their gods, their habits. Those things started being incorporated into their lives and culture. They started drifting away from their true God, the God who delivered them from the slavery I Egypt. They forgot what had happened, and how they got there (the importance of keeping the history alive).


Consequently, they were oppressed by their neighbors, those who they didn’t drive out from their lands. (Judges 1 – 5).


Whenever we get distracted by our “neighbors” and their ways, we drift away from God’s way. Most time we don’t realize it. Because it seems normal, we assume that just because everybody is doing, we should be doing too. It might be right, right? We start acting, thinking, worshiping like them. But when the things get hard, we remember our God, we cry out to Him and He delivers us from our troubles. However, as soon as the problems have gone away, we go back to our old habits. We find ourselves trying to justify why we are doing or being like this.

Why can’t we be faithful to God? Why can’t we keep following God’s way? First, because it isn’t in our nature to be good. We are naturally evil. We have to make an effort to do good and be good. But it is so much easier to do the bad things, to think the worse of people, to judge them before knowing the facts. We just assume we know it all. We justify our doing because everybody is doing just the same. It is ok, it is normal.


But, in God’s eyes, it is not. God helps us whenever we cry out to Him, but He wants more than that. He wants a changed heart. A heart willing to be different, to dare to be different, not normal by the society’s eyes. But right in His eyes. That’s why I cannot change your heart nor your lifestyle.

If you are blinded and don’t seem to care enough to change, I guess you won’t change. Nothing in you will change unless you want it to change.

Two. The other thing I was thinking about is how difficult is for a person to change their lifestyle. No matter how much she understands her to need to change it won’t happen if she truly doesn’t want it. Like, she needs to stop buying, she needs to eat better, to exercise, but if in her heart she doesn’t really want it and does not make any effort to do that, I guess it won’t happen.


You know the earth is collapsing. I know that. You know that. Just because you don’t see all the pollution around you, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You know there are a lot of places out there that you have never seen them before. You know they are there; so, there are trash and plastic polluting our oceans and land fields killing animals and vegetation, that you don’t see them. They are there. You need to want the change, otherwise, there won’t be any earth, beaches to go, water to drink, a place to live anymore. The earth, nature is collapsing, and it is because of you and me.

We human beings, all of us, all of 8 billion of lives who didn’t care before about the earth, now need to do something. But, if you are not willing to change, to sacrifice your lifestyle…
Assim que eu percebi que ser nutricionista era o trabalho mais difícil da terra, assim como ser educador físico, eu disse para mim mesma: eu desisto. Eu não posso mudar o coração de uma pessoa. Eu não posso mudar o estilo de vida da pessoa; porque seu hábito alimentar é algo que você vem construindo ao longo da vida. E eu entendo que a pessoa tem total autoridade sobre a própria vida e seus hábitos; portanto, mudanças não podem vir de fora, tem que partir de dentro.

Eu tenho duas coisas em mente aqui. Uma é a história de Israel. Depois que Josué morreu, veio a era dos juízes para Israel. Eles não tinham rei nem presidente. De tempo em tempo, um juiz era levantado para julgar o povo. Mas, sempre que eles estavam sozinhos com seus vizinhos pagãos, eles seguiam as regras, os deuses, e os hábitos deles. Aquelas coisas começaram a ser incorporadas na cultura e vida do povo de Deus. Eles começaram a se afastar dos caminhos de Deus, o Deus que os tirou da escravidão do Egito. Eles esqueceram o que tinha acontecido, e como eles chegaram ali (por isso é importante manter a história viva).

Consequentemente, eles eram oprimidos pelos seus vizinhos, aqueles que eles não tiraram da terra quando tomaram posse (Juízes 1 – 5).

Sempre que nos distraímos pelos caminhos dos nossos “vizinhos”, nós nos afastamos dos caminhos de Deus. A maioria das vezes nem percebemos, nós assumimos que só porque todo mundo faz, nós devemos fazer também. Deve ser o correto, certo? Nós começamos a agir, pensar e adorar como eles. Mas, quando as coisas ficam difíceis, nós nos lembramos de Deus, e clamamos a Ele, e Ele nos resgata dos nossos problemas. No entanto, assim que que os problemas acabam, nós voltamos aos nossos velhos hábitos. Nós nos vemos tentando justificar o porquê nós agimos e somos como tal.

Por que não podemos ser fiéis a Deus? Por que nós não conseguimos seguir os caminhos de Deus? Primeiro porque não está na nossa natureza ser bons. Nós somos naturalmente maus. Nós temos que nos esforçar para fazer o bem e ser bom. É tão mais fácil ser mau, pensar mal das pessoas, julgá-las antes mesmo de saber dos fatos. Nós assumimos que sabemos de tudo. Nós justificamos nossos atos porque todos fazem o mesmo. Então está ok, é normal.

Mas, nos olhos de Deus, não é não. Deus nos ajuda sempre que clamemos a Ele, mas Ele quer mais do que isso. Ele quer um coração transformado. Um coração disposto a ser diferente, a ousar a ser diferente, não normal pelos olhos da sociedade. Mas, correto nos olhos Dele. Por isso que eu não posso mudar seu coração nem seu estilo de vida.

Se você está cego e parece não se importar suficientemente para mudar, então eu acho que você não vai mudar. Nada em você vai mudar a menos que você queira que mude.

Dois. A outra coisa que eu estava pensando sobre como é difícil para uma pessoa mudar seu estilo de vida. Não importa quanto ela entenda sua necessidade de mudar, não vai acontecer se ela não quiser realmente. Como exemplo, ela precisa parar de comprar, ela precisa comer melhor, exercitar, mas, se no seu coração ela não quer realmente, e não fizer nenhum esforço, eu acho que não vai acontecer.

Você sabe que a terra está em colapso. Eu sei disso. Você sabe disso. Só porque você não vê toda poluição em volta, não significa que ela não existe. Você sabe que existe muitos lugares no mundo que você nunca viu, mas você sabe que eles estão lá. Da mesma forma o lixo e a poluição dos plásticos nos nossos oceanos e campos matando os animais e vegetação, você não vê, mas estão lá. Você precisa querer mudar, de outra forma, não haverá mais terra, praias para ir, água para beber, lugar para morar. A terra, a natureza estão em colapso, e está assim por nossa causa.

Nós seres humanos, todos nós, todos os 8 bilhões de vidas que não se importaram com a terra, agora precisamos fazer algo. Mas, se você não está disposto a mudar, a sacrificar seu estio de vida...



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