Out of the Blocks: Bod for God, Part 2

Spiritually: 1 Corinthians 9:27 “… No, I beat my body and make it my slave…”(NIV).

I have discovered my body likes to talk.  I have also found that I can talk back to my body.  My body will lie to me often, telling me it controls the real me on the inside.  Not true.  It also complains a lot.  Make your body listen to the spiritual YOU.  This life should not be centered on what my body wants to eat or do; my life is centered around worship.

Mentally: Google the phrase “core training” – the most important muscles in your body that need attention. I won’t tell you what they are except that they are great for your back.  This week is all about strength. 

Schedule: Pick up the intensity this week. Whatever you did last week three times, do it with reasonably more intensity this week. Don’t overdo, though, because we are still working on establishing that fragile thing called habit.  If I overdo, I will lay off my schedule just to recover and that blows my new habits, and I have to start all over.  Remember, when it comes to our schedules it’s all about consistency, so pick it up this week but not too much!

Eating:  I can change my tastes.  The more I eat good, healthy foods, the more I desire them and bad food becomes somewhat repulsive.  I never thought I could honestly share that, but it is true.  Sweet stuff just doesn’t have the hold on me anymore like it used to.  I still love chocolate and have learned to have some dark chocolate occasionally or small amounts of other sweets from time to time.  But if there is a cake that I find myself returning to over and over, I make myself throw it away.  Radical?  Yes.  

With your live and lean foods and 1000 mg of quality Vitamin C, this week add the omegas.  Most people get this from fish oils.  I’ll tell you a little secret.  It will cost you because these little suckers are pricey, but you’ll save in the long run.  You’ll want to get MegaRed Krill Oil.  I get it at Walgreens. 

All Krill Oil comes from basically the same place - in cold oceans.  Take one to test for any allergic reaction.  If no reaction, then you will enjoy the huge health benefits of this little dynamo.  Read up on it.  One of the best things you can take for your health.  Make sure you know all about the omegas and krill.

Report: If you fell off the wagon last week, that’s alright, just get back on.  You are establishing habits and that takes some time, reasonable effort, and often some failure.  Your target is to make progress.  Remember, accountability can be very helpful so share something you learned about core training,d krill oil and omegas with your friend or family member who is on your “team.”  Then tell them your schedule for exercise this coming week and what you hope to eat this week.  Then tell them what you are getting out of 1 Corinthians 9:27.  Isn’t this fun?!

The information contained in this blog is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider before starting any new treatment or discontinuing an existing treatment. Talk with your healthcare provider about any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Bod for God, Part 1

Spiritually: 1 Timothy 4:8 “…bodily exercise profits a little…”(NKJV).

Reading this simple verse every day for a week helps to convince us that regular discipline is doable and worth it. It’s the small steps this first week that will lead to big progress later.  “Just a little exercise every day will profit my spirit, soul, and body!”

Mentally: Google“interval training” – the best and fastest way to reduce weight and increase lung capacity.  Don’t go too hard at first.  Interval training allows for short intervals of intensity each followed by much lower intensity for recovery.  The key is increasing rich oxygen in and through your lungs, blood, and cells through gradually increasing your heart rate. 

Schedule: Do SOMETHING this week 3 times, even if it is just walking at a comfortable speed around the block.  It is not important how much or how fast. What is important is getting into the habit and not overdo or you will squash the developing habit and make it harder to maintain. We’re aiming at developing consistency!

Eating: Eat all the live and lean foods you want. Are you ready for this…no sweets this week!  We’re going to close the door to all that extra sugar coming in so we don’t sabotage the effects of having more exercise.  1000 mg of quality Vitamin C (can get it buffered if C is too acidic for you).  Vitamin C is a cornerstone, in my mind, of a great supplemental strategy.

Report: Work on building your team from people who matter around you and choose someone to report to.  Another option is to journal exactly what you did each day how you felt before, during, and after each day. For example: Today, I was tired from traveling and wanted to get right to work to catch up. I thought, “What is missing one day? I can go later or maybe just not go in today. No, just do it. Do at least 15 minutes cardio…”  Ended up with a quick 30 minute stairmaster interval train and got out of there. It is incredibly important for these 7-weeks to be aware of the mental battle you are fighting about the discipline process so just jot down something simple and honest. This is providing accountability!

In your end of week 1 report ...

1. Did you read the passage of scripture every day?

2. What is “interval training”?

3. Did you do some kind of exercise 3 times this week? What were your thoughts after each of those workouts? What progress are you making?

4. Did you stay live and lean in your eating? How difficult was that? Did you take in 1000 mg of C each day?

5. Are you lying about anything on this report? :)

Note: Consider not setting weight loss goals at this point. Set habit goals. The weight loss goals will take care of themselves if you get the correct habits going.  In fact, as you gain muscle strength and lose fat – you may even gain weight.  But that is not a bad thing because your muscles are becoming more efficient in burning fat.  The scale is not the measure of all things!

The information contained in this blog is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider before starting any new treatment or discontinuing an existing treatment. Talk with your healthcare provider about any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Door Number 3

I have decided it's time to go through Door Number 3, the door less opened, when it comes to life's choices.

Typically, I go through Door Number 1 or Door Number 2 when I get disappointed or mistreated. But, I have been discovering that there is a third door, and, if I choose to go through it, I won’t be sorry.

This story might not make sense to you unless you are a 50-something woman who is trying to look brunette most of the time, but whose gray roots are very stubborn. Mother’s Day was coming up, and I was looking forward to my hair appointment with my long-time stylist after I got off of work that Thursday. About 30 minutes before my appointment, I looked at my cell phone to see that I had a text from her. "Uh-oh, that can’t be good," I thought.

I checked the text and she said she was running late. Could she contact me when she was ready for me to come? No problem, I texted back, as I was thinking, “Whew, good thing she didn’t cancel on me! With Mother’s Day coming up, I really need a cut and color.”

I spoke too soon. About 30 minutes later she texted that she was going to have to cancel my appointment, her last of the day, because people had been running late all afternoon, and someone she thought had cancelled had shown up. On top of that, she had to go to a nearby town for a graduation that evening. Could she reschedule with me on Monday?

Monday! That was a full four days away! Are you kidding? Didn’t she know how horrible my roots looked, not to mention my bangs that were already too long and wouldn’t be cajoled into going anywhere except in my eyes? How could she do this to me -- a loyal customer for more than 20 years?

I purposely didn’t text her back for at least 15 minutes. I knew I had to simmer down. Finally, I sent a cryptic message, “What time?” It wasn’t just this month's postponement that was getting to me. This seemed to be happening with more and more regularity in the last year, and I was feeling mistreated. I really wanted to give her a piece of my mind.

But I knew that’s not what a Christ-follower does – or is it? Sometimes I am confused about that. Is it really wrong to withhold correction, even if you are angry, when it could benefit the person in the long run? Deep down, though, I knew that was a lie. If I vented it would be for my flesh’s benefit alone and not to help her out.

To simply let it go, though, to pretend as though everything was just fine, seemed to be not only disingenuous but downright wimpy. If I just go along with another’s ill treatment of me, am I not letting myself be a victim and reinforcing the other person's behavior? More importantly, what do I do with the internal anger that comes from being mistreated?

Those are the two options I normally think of in these types of situations. Door Number 1 is to let the flesh vent itself with some harsh words. Let’s let ‘em have it. They had it coming! They’d better not treat me that way! Door Number 2 is to accept the treatment without so much as a peep. Be a martyr. Take it on the chin. Let them get away with murder.

Could there be another option?

Door Number 3 is when we refuse to lash out in anger or hurt, but instead of being a doormat, we turn our face to God and ask Him to work things out for our good and blessing, as well as everyone who is involved. We don’t stick up for ourselves, because we trust that someone else is doing that for us. We don’t have to ensure that we are going to be treated fairly, because we have entrusted ourselves into another’s hands. 

Suddenly the sting goes out of the entire situation as we allow His grace to bring us what we don’t deserve, and we no longer look at people as the source of our needs being met.

That is exactly what God was able to get through to me in the midst of my anger over my cancelled appointment. He showed me that He could take care of me, gray hair and all, if I trusted Him to do so. Could I put the whole mess into His hands and trust Him to work it out? It required that I believe in something i couldn't see, let go of my anger and my miffed feelings.

It was risky, but I decided to try it.

When I trusted God instead of taking things into my own hands, my anger at my stylist evaporated to almost nothing. I no longer felt like an abused victim. I could look at the situation more rationally and see her perspective. I was not sure how God was going to help me, but I knew He would not fail me.

God's miracles turn up in the most unlikely places -- like the hair aisle at Walmart. Shortly after the missed appointment, I came across a new product that was for gray roots. It was a wand that looked like a mascara brush and applied color to strands of hair, washing out with shampoo. There were no peroxides or messy color that stained my towels and got all over the bathtub. It wasn’t any harder than putting on my mascara in the morning, and was less than $5 a bottle. It worked perfectly for the short-term.

Mother's Day turned out wonderfully, long bangs and all. (They seemed to be less cantankerous that day). My attitude had come a long way -- and I hadn't ruined my relationship with my stylist, whom I consider a friend as well as a fellow believer. In fact, if God so led me, I would have the freedom to speak with her about the situation without any anger or frustration. 

It was good to discover anew, in this little episode of my life, how I could trust Him to take care of me in the little as well as the big messes I find myself in. After all, if He is going to count my hairs, He ought to know where to find something to put color on them.

Unpause

Is your story on pause?

We all are living out a story. It’s one being written from heaven by our Creator. If you want your story to count with God, if you want Him to be involved in writing your story, then you have to engage God with your faith.

If you don’t believe, your life is on pause.

It’s not just a matter of believing in God, either. We must believe what He tells us enough to obey Him ... trust Him enough to act on what He has said.

Just as we can pause an audio or video recording and come back to it at an indefinite time in the future, so our lives, if they are devoid of faith, are in pause mode, at least as far as heaven is concerned.

If you look at the stories that occurred when Jesus walked the earth, you will be struck by the happy endings seen there. You don’t read very often about people who came to him with needs and then refused to believe Him. Apparently, if they were such incidences, they didn’t get much ink in the Gospel accounts.

What we do see is people who struggled with trusting God, but decided to believe in spite of their struggles. They are the ones we hear about, even millennia later. Their stories are still being told and they dominate the pages of the New Testament.

People like Jairus, who continued to believe and refused to fear when he was told his daughter was dead; people like Zaccheus, who knew he was a sinner but accepted Jesus’ love and forgiveness; people like Blind Bartimaeus, who wouldn’t take no for an answer but kept calling out for God’s mercy so he could see again.

There is a passing reference to an episode in Jesus’ hometown when people were full of unbelief because they thought he was just “one of them,” so He couldn’t do any mighty miracles there. (Not would not, but could not, because of their lack of faith.)

The stories of those who would not believe don’t make the press because there isn’t much to tell. They were at a dead end, an impasse. God wanted to write their story, too, but He couldn’t because they refused to believe Him.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. But with faith, all things are possible.

Don't let your life be on pause. When God is the author of your story, glorious things can be written that make heaven glad.

Dream Giver

The closer we get to Jesus, the more we find out about the dreams in our heart.

Peter, Jesus' close associate, is a case in point. Peter -- the fisherman, family man, not a very religious person -- didn't know God had an amazing dream for him that included being the spiritual leader of a movement destined to change the world. Probably the biggest dream he had dared to dream in his life up to that point was bringing in such an amazing haul of fish that he could retire early and pass the business on to his son.

All of that changed when he started getting curious about an itinerant rabbi who was different than anyone he had ever met. He started hanging around Jesus. 

Luke 5:1-11 shares the story of Peter and his business partners fishing all night, but without one catch. After that disappointing night of work, Peter was washing his nets, a tedious job, ready to go home and get some shut eye. But Jesus interrupted his mundane world and asked Peter if he could use one of the boats for a pulpit. The crowds were getting so big and Jesus needed to put a little space between him and the people in order to continue teaching them.

Peter obliged. We don't know how reluctantly (remember he was tired), but apparently he was a generous guy and believed in what Jesus was doing. After the boat loan, Jesus wanted to recompense Peter for his time and trouble.  All of the sudden, Peter’s dreams come true, and he has such a boat load of fish that his ship starts to sink!

Even as one dream is coming true, Jesus begins uncovering another dream in Peter’s heart. “From now on, you will catch men,” He tells him. In the other gospel accounts (Matthew and Mark), Jesus said, “Come, follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.”

Jesus is offering him a new dream! A future that is full of risk. A dream Peter had never even considered, until he gets close to Jesus, the Dream Giver.

With the uncovered dream, though, come voices in Peter's head trying to keep him from the dream:  “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!” Peter protests. The Message Bible puts it this way: "I'm a sinner and I can’t take this holiness! Leave me to myself."

Whenever we pursue a dream, or even consider the possibility of a better life, these voices come to us. “There’s sin in my life. I'm too young. I'm too old. I'm not educated enough. Where will I get the money? Who would want to hear what I have to say?"

Peter had to overcome those voices with another Voice: Jesus telling him that He was going to change him, make him into something.  “Follow me and I will MAKE you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) We have to get close enough to Jesus to recognize the dreams He has put in our heart and then let Him change us into the person who can realize those dreams. We have to let Him make us into somebody different than we are now.

Peter was willing to take that risk, and follow that Voice. Are you?

Don't Pray?

Is there a time God tells us not to pray?

There are at least a couple times in the Bible where people's prayers actually displeased God because they were supposed to command a situation instead of ask for help.

When God gives a command, we need to go forward in faith. Jesus told the disciples to go to the other side of the lake. They received almost as stiff a rebuke from the Lord as did the wind and waves when they told Jesus the storm was going to kill them. After stilling the wind and the sea with His words, He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" (Mark 4:40). He was incredulous.

A similar story in the Old Testament is in Exodus 14 when Moses had received the charge to deliver God's people out of Egypt. With Pharoah and the mighty Egyptian army in hot pursuit, and the mountains on either side of them, Moses and the Israelites faced the seemingly impassable Red Sea before them. Who wouldn't have cried out to God in desperation in a time like that?

But God said to Moses, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward." Then He added, "You lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it." The implication is that Moses would divide the sea as God's representative.

God wanted decisive action in both cases, based on His prior instructions. When God tells us to do something, we then have delegated authority to speak to whatever is our obstacle and command it to change or get out of the way.

We are emissaries of the Most High God. If a king issues a decree and his emissaries are sent to carry it out, they don't come back with their tail between their legs at the first sign of resistance. They have the power of the king backing them to enforce the edict.

So, too, we have the backing of all of heaven to enforce our Father's commands.

Entering the No-Time Zone

What difference does it make if I see the answer to my prayer the second I pray or sometime in the future? 

What I mean is, sometimes we are tempted to doubt and give up when we don't see the answer to our prayers immediately. We think the passage of time somehow means our prayers went unheard or our requests were rejected. That's a big problem, because if we give up, we won't see the answer to our prayers come about, even though God wants us to have those answers.

When I pray, it helps me to understand that God is eternal. He is not bound by time like we are on earth. When I pray, I am entering the realm of eternity, where God is. You could call it, entering the no-time zone.

When I pray according to His will (His word), I can know He has answered yes to my prayers. 

And this is the boldness we have in God’s presence: that if we ask God for anything that agrees with what he wants, he hears us. If we know he hears us every time we ask him, we know we have what we ask from him. (1 John 5:14-15, New Century Version)

So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you. (Mark 11:24, New Century Version)

As soon as I pray, then, I can know it's a done deal. God has said yes. I can agree that it's done, even though I don't see it yet in my natural realm of existence. That's where my consistent belief that God has heard me and answered me keeps me steady so I don't give up or waver in my mind. It helps me to remember that prayer has been answered in the no-time zone, but there may be some delays in it getting to earth, where time is a fact of life.

Sooner or later, though, it must show up in my natural circumstances, if I don't give up. It can't NOT be realized, because God Almighty has said yes. He is never early and never late.. ...and you shall have them -- the answer! (Mark 11:25)