After I Faced the Mirror, My Only Hope was in God

That night, after seeing myself in the mirror at school in the gym, I was home in bed and I prayed. It was not a typical prayer. I remember praying for three hours. My recollection tells me three hours, even though I know it sounds incredible. But I was in anguish over my body. 

I actually begged and pleaded with God toplease please please help me, to please make me lose this fat. I was grabbing the large hunks of fat under my skin, on my chest, fat rolls on my gut. I begged God to make it go away; to help me lose this fat once and for all. 

Losing the fat on my body had only been a day dream before then. It had been an impossible thing to accomplish for so long. All the way through grammar school, I could only fantasize that I looked like the normal kids – the skinny kids or the lean muscular kids. I wished I could be normal looking, good looking, popular, happy, and have a girlfriend. But it had been just a wish for so long; just a fantasy. A few times I had fasted an entire day trying to lose weight but that would only make me light headed and weak.

But, after that night when I prayed earnestly, it was no longer just a fantasy. After that night when I begged and pleaded with God for hours toplease please please help me, my life changed quickly. God listened and responded.

Because I was being raised as a Catholic at that time, I had Catholic notions of Jesus Christ. I prayed to God and Jesus Christ even thoughat that time I believed completely in God but was not so sure about the relevance of Jesus Christ. (Catholics get a notion of Jesus Christ as one of many important people due to the lack of emphasis on the words of Jesus, lack of emphasis on reading the New Testament, and an overemphasis on apostles, “canonized” saints, Mary and Joseph, “baby Jesus” in “the holy family”, not to mention all its robotic rituals.)

PRAY TO GOD

After you’ve taken the first step – an honest look in the mirror – do not despair. You will feel anguish, though, at first. And this anguish must be followed by prayer. So, you must have hope. Put your hope in God. God has the power to transform you. And if you ask God, He will give you the power to transform your body.2  It is said that “the starting point of achievement is desire.”3  But I believe that if you desire something bad enough to pray for it, then you can achieve whatever it is you desire. This is not a new idea. You can read the Holy Bible and it will tell you the power of prayer.4  Whether you believe it is another matter. 

I assure you that when I was 15 years old and prayed to God that one momentous night, I was not doing so because of anything I read in the Holy Bible. Again, being raised as a Catholic at that time, I knew very little about what was stated in the Holy Bible. I knew characters (Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, Moses, Mary and Joseph, twelve apostles, “baby Jesus,” etc.) in the bible but not much else. Plus, I was still just an ad