Physically/Spiritually Fit

I just got back from the gym, and yes it is 4 AM. Funny, but not many people are at the gym from 3-4 in the morning. Just me this morning, but another guy came in as I was leaving... anyway back to the matter at hand...

It's been a few months since I've made a trip to work out, (And my body will not let me forget it for a few days... great!). Since graduating from high school, I have not worked out like I should have. Oh I meant to, but just never got around to it, or had other things keeping me busy. On my way home I was thinking how many Christians are out doing the same thing spiritually as I am doing physically. As Christians day in and day out we should be walking by faith, running the race, and fighting the good fight, but so many of us have become lazy. At one point we did actively run after God, and work to become as close to Him as we could, but then we hit a wall, lost motivation, reached our "high school graduation", and our desire to continue on in the pursuit, our drive to be all that we should be, just fizzled away. Sure we go to the gym (Church) every once in a while, or every Sunday, or every Sunday and Wednesday, but when we get there, how much working out do we do? How much running after God do we do? How much effort do we put into our walks? Most of us go expecting to be spoon fed by the pastor/youth pastor/associate pastor/Sunday school teacher. One thing that I've figured out physically is that if you continue to eat, regardless to how healthy you eat, if you do not exercise at all, you will start adding some fat, and you will start losing some muscle.

Which brings me to my next point. If we lose muscle, how are we to fight off the enemy? If we become fat, lazy Christians, will we be quick enough to see and avoid the traps set out for us by the enemy? Will we be able to flex our flab, resist the devil, and make him flee from us? And if we do see the trap, will we have enough energy to avoid them, or will we lazily walk right through the middle of them, and hope somebody bails us out (ew bail outs... another sermon for another day. Focus...)

Ok I'm back, almost lost me there for a second. But seriously, some of us have missed out on opportunities to pump some serious iron spiritually, and though it's going to be difficult and possibly painful the first few visits back to our "personal gym" (better known as prayer closet/quiet place), once the soreness leaves, we will better than we have in a long time...

I could go run another couple of miles after that. Anybody care to join me....?

Dinner and a movie... and a prayer...

I recently sat down to enjoy a great American meal, Chic-fil-a (love that place), and while sitting in the recliner in front of the TV,   I was taking my char-grilled chicken wrap out of the bag and spouting off a memorized, "Thank you for the food" prayer, something hit me. I don't necessarily mean something literally hit me like a piece of paper floating through the air after being lofted out of a good friends hand, I mean a feeling of conviction hit me. After I performed the multi-taskical extravaganza, I looked to my left to see my father doing the same. The only difference is that he had nuggets and was sitting on the couch. Then the thought came. Who am I to talk to the Creator of all things in this way? Who am I to ask His blessings, even upon something as simple as food, without taking the time to stop what I am doing, rid my self of distractions to enter His throne room? I also wondered, how many more are guilty of these same actions? It's kind of like we have taken his throne room, and turned it into a movie theater. We go and sit, and while getting entertained, we drop pop corn, spill coke, and our M&M's melt on the floor. As we leave, we also leave the garbage, and the mess that we spilled, not bothering to clean up after ourselves, not being courteous or even respectful to the place that we are allowed to come. Can you visualize that, treating the throne room of Almighty God as we would a movie theater? There is one similarity that I can find between the two. We should leave each of these changed. We should leave the throne room with a changed attitude, changed mind set, changed heart, worries are taken care of, feeling loved. When we leave the movie theater we should leave with our shoes sticking to the floor, with a mind set of That movie was awesome", or a mind set of, "I could've done something better with that money." I wonder how much longer God is going to clean up after us? After all it's His place, He could stop the open invitations altogether... or do like the movie theater and start charging...

The Starting Line

Well, I didn't really know where to start with this, being my first blog and all, so what would be more appropriate than the starting line (thus the title). It's been an interesting week so far, and it's only Thursday. Full clinical day (9 hours) monday, 6.5 hours of class Tuesday with a Clincial final, yesterday included a test on hymodynamics along with another 7+ hours of class followed by probably the most awesome villain of the century, Z Dark Swine, making his debut appearance at OFA Kids Crusade last night, today has held two tests up to this point with another 3 hours of class that are soon to follow and another appearance by Z Dark Swine will take place tonight, and then tomorrow shall hold Z Dark Swine summer finale. I still have to prepare for sunday school, and Buddy B has to make a trip to Kids Klub for BGMC sunday morning so I have to pull my hair out getting him to rehearse. (he hate's rehearsals). Never-the-less it's been a long tiring week, but God has been faithful, as always, my tests up until the last one have gone really well (and i'm not certain how the last one went, haven't gotten a grade yet...). I just needed something to do to get some of this information overload out of my head, and this seems to suffice. Who ever as actually read this entire thing I do commend you and promise that the next one will be much better... ok scratch that promise of the next one being better. I hope that the next one is better. Greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done here!

I'm out!