Magic and Weight Loss Drugs

And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” 2 Kings 5:10

If you’ve been reading this blog over the last couple of days, you’ll not be surprised to learn that my wife and I are in the middle of our yearly Harry Potter marathon that we observe every winter. In this fantasy world, pans are washed by magical dish scrubbers and sweaters are woven by magical knitting needles. I’ve got to admit, this is attractive. Life is hard work and if I possessed magical powers, I’d likely use them to avoid hard work. If, for instance, you approached 20-year-old me, offering me a magical choice between winning the lottery or going to medical school, I’m afraid of my answer. I can look back now and be thankful for putting in the hard work of school, residency, and building a career. Back then though, looking forward to all that work, if you’d have given me the fantasy option of winning the lottery, I’m afraid I may have taken it.

For most of us, it is our nature to prefer instant success over hard work. This is illustrated in today’s passage. In the story, a man named Naaman approached the prophet Elisha, hoping to be healed from his leprosy. Elisha told Naaman to go bathe in the Jordan river seven times and he’d be healed. Naaman wanted a different kind of miracle, expecting instant healing with no effort on his part. Indignant, he refused to obey. I’m not doing that.

Like Naaman, most of us prefer the magical or miraculous path, which requires no work on our part. This is nowhere more evident than with weight loss. As a physician who struggles with weight loss myself, I’ve wrestled with weight loss drugs. I’ve not done the shot, but I’ve tried other, less successful precursors. I’ve found what we all know intuitively. If we use a medication that makes us lose weight, without causing us to learn behavioral change, then once that medication is stopped, the indulgent behavior returns, and the weight comes back. This is because if the drug does all the work, we’ve learned nothing.

I am not anti-weight loss drugs. They can be life-changing and lifesaving. I’m simply using this as an example to show that authentic behavioral change is profoundly difficult. Pills may be able to alter our behavior for a time, but if we truly desire transformation, we must put in the hard work of radically changing everything about our lives. This is tremendously difficult, which is why so many of us struggle so much with authentic behavioral change.

When I got sober, I had to change everything about my life. It was a complete overhaul of my behavior, and it wasn’t something I did just once. Daily, I still must work on not following me. Daily, I still must put in the effort of following God. This is hard work, but if I truly want behavioral change, and if I truly want the new life that comes with it, then I must daily do the work.