Americans are vying for the title “Heaviest People on Earth.” We’ve developed major league eating habits. We’re the Fast-Food kings. We, and the restaurants that cater us, are pros at “portion distortion”—some of the cups sold by food chains and gas stations are so big they won’t fit in standard cup-holders.

We eat often, eat big, and chow down. We’re spending more on not-so-healthy foods and we’re gaining weight—lots of weight. And now we’re being warned that obesity ranks as a growing problem (no pun intended) among the nation’s children.

There’s a game I played as a kid and maybe you did too. It’s called, “Follow the Leader” and it’s pretty simple. You can do it inside or out, with a couple of friends or many. First you pick a leader among the group. The objective is for everyone else to follow behind that leader doing exactly what they do. By exactly, I mean, if they scratch their nose, you have to do the same. If they cough, you cough. If they ride their bike over a stick, then you have to ride over the same stick. For the leader, the objective is to try and eliminate the followers by coming up with complicated tasks that they either can’t do or forget to do.

The days are long and lazy, and as I turn the corner toward harvesting my garden in the waning summer sun, the country stops to celebrate Independence Day. I still remember the first extravagant fireworks display I watched as a child at my uncle’s Kansas City country club. More recently, my family trekked to Detroit to take in the Freedom Festival Fireworks. North America’s biggest fireworks display, the celebration is worth the three-hour trip, and fighting late-night traffic out of the Motor City.

July is the month our nation thinks about what freedom means. While we celebrated in the usual ways—picnics, fireworks, beach parties—our definitions of freedom can be anything but usual.

For those who have recently relocated to the United States from another country, freedom can mean the ability to find work, provide for a family, worship as desired. For those recently released from prison, freedom can be the ability to eat, watch a movie, exercise, or visit a grocery store when desired.

I spoke with my wife recently about an observation I have made that we don’t kiss as much as we used too. I even wrote an article about it because she replied the reason we didn’t was my breath wasn’t as fresh as it used to be. Ouch! But that’s probably not the only rationale.

Spring is a time of new life—in stops and starts. First the daffodils, tulips and hyacinth bloom. The hostas poke their shoots through the earth. Forsythia shows the world how beautiful the color yellow can be. Lilacs perfume the air. The lettuce and peas go into the garden first; we then wait for the chance of frost to end to put in beans, melon, cucumbers, squash and herbs.

I wait again for the maple trees to drop their helicopters before putting mulch on the front-yard flowerbeds. And finally, after three years, we’re getting raspberries on our lush, prickly branches.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes,that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15.1-2, ESV)

I put in my garden this weekend and this morning, I stood proudly amidst rows of corn, beans, tomatoes, peppers. I’ve learned this dance over the past few years. Plants and seeds go into the warm earth under the spring sunshine, and by fall my kitchen counters are filled with more tomatoes and peppers than I can hope to eat in the next 6 months. I still have a freezer full of beans.

During the revivals of Charles Finney and George Whitefield, and under John Wesley, entire cities were changed under the power of God’s transforming Spirit. Finney wrote about the bars and theaters that closed because of men and women pursuing Christ, and a Christ centered lifestyle. Wesley’s fiery preaching and his systematic approach to Christian living gave birth to the term Methodist. He strictly encouraged his listeners to build habits that reflected a life changed by Christ.