It's me again!

It's been a while since I updated this and I've been missing it.

Those who know me personally know I've had a couple setbacks in my running (and my weight) lately.  I'd gained quite a bit of weight back (saw the dreaded 200s again) and haven't been running the way I used to.  What you may (probably) don't know is with the weight, came self-doubt, lack of confidence... even self-loathing at times.

I'm back down in the 170s again and starting to get my head back on straight.  Not there yet, but headed in that direction.  What I've learned through these battles is, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10:12 "Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall".  I fell in several areas of my life.

Now, I am renewing my commitment to God first, being a better husband and father second, renewing my health third and all the other things I do/am/etc a distant fourth through whatever.

This little setback has re-affirmed what I knew, our lives are not compartmentalized.  We can't let one area of our life go down hill and keep the other areas where they should.  The further we get away from who we were made and called to be in one area, the further we are in all areas.

Please join me in re-focusing our lives on the One who matters, the One who made us, the One who is in control.   May He increase and i decrease.

Shane

If you want to dance...

Yep, I'm baptist and just typed dance, but I already digress...

There's a song (Undone) by FFH that I hear on the radio a lot.  Part of the chorus says:
"... we all want love, we all want honor.  Nobody wants to pay the asking price".

That gets me thinking of how I say I want things, to run farther, faster, to know God better, to get another certification, to make more money, to finish my masters degree, to {whatever}.  It also reminds me of the folks I talk to (had one today) that say they want to get on my program or the like.  Truth be told, I bet you have an "I want" list, too.  I don't think there is anything wrong with any of my wants, as long as they are kept in the proper place.

So, what keeps us from accomplishing them?  It is because, as the song says, "Nobody wants to pay the asking price."  If I want to run faster/further, I have to get out and run more.  If I want to know God better, I have to spend time reading His word and praying.  If I want to finish my degree, it will mean nights away from my family.  There is a price to pay for the things we want.  Do we want them **THAT** bad?

When I went from 265 - 270 lbs, 48" waist to my current +/- 170 lbs, 32" waist, I wanted health and fitness MORE than I wanted the doughnuts and fast food.  It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.  I wish I'd paid that asking price a long time ago.  As I'm working on reading the Bible through this year, I have to want that more than I want the extra sleep in the morning.  It is about priorities.

Now, we can all sit back at the all-you-can eat buffet and say I want six-pack abs and to run an ironman next year OR we can get our butt up and start paying the price.  We can say we want to be God's servant and we want to know Him better OR we can get our Bibles down (or down load them on our smartphone/tablet/whatever) and get on our knees.  It is our choice.

I want to stop being hypocritical about my wants, my "I'm gonna ..."s and start looking to see what the costs are before adding them to my to-do lists.

Jesus tells us in Luke 14 to be sure we count the costs.  There are costs involved in following Him.  However, they are well worth it.  I would encourage you to join me in getting off our rear-ends, counting the costs of living healthier lives (both physically and spiritually) and jumping in.

"If you want to dance, you got to pay the fiddler..."

As always, I love hearing your thoughts on these posts.

May He increase and i decrease,

shane

What... one won't hurt anything!!

 I was talking with a dear friend the other day and the subject of my weight loss/fitness came up in relation to spiritual matters.  The question came up, something to the affect (or effect or whatever) "how is it Biblically wrong to have a cookie?".  My thoughts, 'cause I haven't found cookies anywhere in the Bible, are that it isn't assuming you are in control of the cookie, not the other way around.  

At one time in my life, I couldn't have one cookie, or whatever the snack/food was.  I couldn't say no.  I didn't practice self-control.  So, like in Phil 3:19, my stomach was my god (“Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”  Phil 3:19 NIV).  We know from the Gospels and Exodus that God is a jealous God.  He doesn’t share his kids with other things.  When I couldn’t turn down that cookie, that extra serving of fried fish, that cake, that doughnut, that diet coke (ouch, did that hurt you as much as me?), that {whatever}, I was trying to serve God and a god.  Can’t do it.  

Along those same lines, the Bible also goes on to talk about self-control other areas.  Just a couple:  

• Proverbs says:  “Like a city whose walls are broken down 

   is a man who lacks self-control”

• 1 Thessalonians says:  “So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled”

Self-control, I’ve found, also leads to self-confidence which then leads to more self-control.  Funny how God wired us, isn’t it? 

I posted earlier that the more discipline I have in one area, it surprises me how much discipline I have in others.  Discipline and self-control are pretty much the same thing in my mind.  Life is just better when you have it.  

Maybe you’re OK with passing on a cookie, but how are your thoughts on exercise?  How many days do you miss reading your Bible (OOOUUUCH! My toes, my toes!), how is your prayer life?  

Anyway, I’ll try not to be as preachy next post and hopefully it will not take me 2 months to post again.  

Til next time.

May He Increase and i decrease,

shane

I have a heart condition...

No, not a medical heart condition... I have a condition of where my heart is.  The Bible reminds us that where our heart is "there our treasure is also".  I'm better than I was before.  Dropping nearly 100 lbs and keeping it off has changed my heart.

Ginger and I were talking the other day and I told her that when I am disciplined enough to exercise, I'm usually disciplined to keep my office cleaner, etc.  Everything works together.  That really kinda tied in together for me on a run the other day.  My shoes were giving me fits, I'd not slept and I really didn't want to be running that morning.  I wanted to sleep and wake up and eat pancakes.  True story.  I was wondering, if God is God of all (and He is), then why would I, as an otherwise sane person, have to be up and running before the sun came up?  Why wouldn't God just give us all the ability to stay healthy and eat what we want, when we want and how much we want?  While we're at it, why do we need to tithe (I mean, come on, God doesn't really need our money anyway, right?)?   The answer to all those questions is it is a matter of the heart.  Remember, where our heart is (say it with me now) there our treasure is also (great job).  It is God's way of conditioning our hearts.

When we practice self-control in one area of our life, it spills over to others.  We keep our office (or car, house, whatever) cleaner, we watch our spending and become more frugal with what God has entrusted us with (including time), we may even go so far as having a regular devotion.

He's entrusted us with these bodies that the Bible teaches are His temple.  When we put things in front of what God has told us to do, it becomes idolatry, right?  Then let's treat God's temple with the respect and self control it deserves, let's put His words to action and not have idols in our life.

Ephesians 5:5 says:  "For of this you can be sure:  No immoral, impure or greedy person -- such a person is an idolater -- has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God"  (Thanks, http://www.biblegateway.com)

For me, caffeine has become an idol at times.  If I skipped it on Sunday morning, I couldn't listen to the message because my head hurt too much.  I'm removing that.

What idols do you have that need to be removed?  What is the condition of your heart?  I pray it's better than mine!

May He increase and i decrease,

shane

I've always heard knowledge is power

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to sit down and update my blog.  I have missed it.

In my reading the other day, I came across the following verse from Hosea 4 “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge…” and it got me thinking.  I do not read my Bible as much as I should… I don’t learn as much about the Biblical customs/traditions/etc as possible so I could apply them in context with what I read.  I need a deeper knowledge of the scriptures and how they fit in with the people then so I could better apply them to my life now.

That also got me thinking about how I used to eat.  I had no knowledge about what I was putting in my body.   I bought into the cliche of "better living through chemistry" as it applied to food.  Now, I’m learning about the different things that we’re consuming and have been shocked by the junk we’re consuming, sometimes even doing so to be healthy (have you read what's in some of the low {whatever} foods??).  We truly are morons at times.  (I said WE, not you).   The less we know about what we put into our bodies, the worse we are for it.  We stay tired, our vitals go wrong, etc.

A greater tragedy is not feeding our spiritual life good things.  Listen to what people are saying in books/TV shows/music/movies/etc closely.  If they are clearly going against your beliefs, change channels, leave, whatever you have to do.  Don’t be like I was at one time and just go grab something to eat and hope that part of will be off when you get back. 

Please, let’s join together to put into our minds, hearts and bodies things we know are good at least for 2 weeks.  If a food has a list of ingredients that looks like they are written in a foreign language, skip it for a banana or a salad with olive oil dressing.  If a TV show has a history of saying things that are 180 degrees away from your beliefs, turn the TV off and read or, better yet, go for a walk or run.  We can’t consistently avoid things that are not in line with our beliefs, but we can take a week or two off.  We may find out that the TV show we thought we liked, really isn’t as good when we go back to watch it after “cleansing” our mind.  We may also find that the food we thought we liked really doesn’t taste as good as we remember.  If we do this long enough, we may also find our pants fit better than we remember!

Thoughts?

May He Increase and I decrease,

shane

You can't have real un-noticed change

Looking at my pictures above, you'll notice I've changed a bit.  I changed with guidance from liveRIGHTnow (http://www.liverightnowonline.com/).  One thing you won't notice is the change has happened all over... not just my face and belly.  There are changes you don't notice, however, in the pictures:  I have more energy, I can actually run now, I can even wear out a four year old rather than the other way around.  Another thing I thought was odd is my shoes and caps now fit differently as well.  I have a pair of loafers that I have to wear two pair of socks to wear.  We were talking about this at work a while back and when I told a co-worker about this, he said "wow, you were fat from your head to toe, huh?".  I'd not thought of it that way, but it is true. 

Ginger and I were talking the other day and she commented that she also thought my feet had "shrunk" (this is different than her saying my feet stunk, but I digress).  These two comments made me think.  When I changed one thing that most folks wouldn't notice, it lead to changes that they do.  Think about it... when was the last time you were in a restaurant and REALLY noticed what someone was eating other than if it looked really good or something.  By changing what I eat and the amount of exercise I get, neither of which most people would give a second glance to, my whole body, from head to toe, was transformed. 

Think about that in a different context.  If we are really sold out to Jesus, we really don't have to announce it... people will know.   We don't need to miss an opportunity to lead someone to Christ, but we also should live a life that people can see a difference in us.  The Bible talks several times about our need to change.  Two places come to mind... Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:11 " When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I had the understanding of a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." and, more specifically, in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."  Did you get that?  all things have become new.  We're not the same person we used to be, physically or spiritually.  As big of a change as you see above, there is an even bigger change inside me that happened years ago and was made possible just over 2000 years ago.  I am a new creature. 

How about you?  Have you changed?  Think so?  Do others see it?  If not, re-evaluate and be honest with yourself.  If you’re not different, there is no change.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Love to hear 'em.

May He increase and i decrease,

shane

God, Fast Food, Dad and Bob Dylan... what a combo!

Other than the story of Jesus birth, death and resurrection, one of my favorite stories, if not my favorite story in the Bible comes from 1 Kings 18.  The story starts to unfold in verse 19 when Elijah and Ahab were talking about who has caused trouble for Israel and ends with God showing Himself to the Israelites in a powerful way.  (Read the story here:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20kings%2018:19-39&version=NIRV

  I love the confidence and humor displayed in Elijah.  He shows himself to be someone I’d like to hang out with and, I believe, my Dad would like to hang out with as well.  If we look at the history of the story, though, it reminds me of one of my favorite stories about my Dad’s Dad.  I’ll get to that shortly.

So what does that have to do with weight loss?  Healthy Eating?  Exercise?  The other half of what this blog is about?  Well, you see, people then had a problem.  They had competing loyalties.  They were trying as hard as they could to worship God and the other gods of the area/time referred to as Baals.  This reminds me of the way we are in America today.  We’re going to get healthy… we’re going to eat right… we’re going to lose weight.  Then, the next day, we’re pulling through McDonalds/Burger King/{insert your favorite fast food place here}.  We may try to continue walking with one foot on each side by ordering a grilled chicken sandwich and drinking a diet coke, but what we’re doing is eating something that may (or may not) have started off as chicken but is so processed and shot full of chemicals that it is damaging us.  We cannot have our proverbial cake and eat it, too.  We have to decide… do we want to eat processed junk food that is quick and cheap *OR* do we want to lose weight and increase our health?  If we want the former, we need to stop working toward/talking about the latter.  For the most part, barring a few freaks of nature, they are mutually exclusive.  Decide and fall in line and life is easier. 

Same thing in our Spiritual lives.  We show up to Church on Sunday morning, may sing a few songs, may even give money… maybe even tithe.  Then we cross back over the line and walk on that side the rest of the week.  Next Sunday, if we feel like it, we’ll go back to Church and start again.  We need to choose a side and follow that leader.  In the late 70s, Bob Dylan (not that I think he’s a theological person to follow) had a song that said it best:  “You’re gonna have to serve somebody; Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord; But you’re gonna have to serve somebody”.  Just like with our eating, the sooner we pick who we’re going to serve, the better we’ll be. 

So, how does this story remind me of my Dad and Grandfather?  Elijah’s confidence in God and sense of humor remind me of my Dad.  He’s someone to be proud of and set a great example for me growing up.  When we look at the background of the story is where I think of my Grandfather.  The people in Israel were going through a bad drought then.  They’d been praying to their gods as well as God for rain, but it hadn’t come in about 3 years.  The story I remember of my Grandfather (and I hope it is true) is the community where I grew up was going through a drought of their own way back when.  The men of the Church decided to have a special prayer meeting to pray for rain.  My Grandfather was one of two men that night that brought his umbrella!  That’s faith, confidence and my memories of my Grandfather.    

Thanks for reading… hope you got something out of it.

May He increase and I decrease,

shane