How arrogant we are?

If you've known me for a while, you know that exercise and physical fitness is something that brings a great source of enjoyment to me. I love everything about it, the challenge of pushing yourself farther than you did the last time, the thrill of getting to that new plateau knowing that the only reason you're here is because you pushed your limts. The feeling of lifting a weight with ease, that awhile ago was a challenge for you to do once, or the feeling of running and blowing past your mark from a few days before. But sadly, no matter how much you lift, the majority of the results comes from how you eat. They say so much protein, vitamins, etc, but the worst thing you could do is not eat, obviously. So a few weeks ago I got a bit of a wake up call as to how obsessed I had become with it all.

 I was supposed to fast for a day (no food, only juice and water.) So everything in me was wanting to eat thinking "This isn't good for me, all I'm doing is hurting myself." I then realized the irony of the situation, a fast is supposed to be about trusting in God and giving up something, for a time, that we consistently depend on. This realization gave birth to a new thought, "How arrogant am I to think that I would really know what is better for my body than the one who made it?" Afterall, who knows more about an invention, the one who created it or the user? Obviously the creator, with this thought in mind I went through with the fast.

But the thought has stuck with me for a while now, which has led to more thoughts, as thoughts often do. The main thought that keeps bouncing around in my head is "How arrogant we are." Seriously, stop for a second and think about it. How arrogant is the human race? I'm not singling anybody out, and I'm throwing myself in there, but how arrogant are we as a race? We think we know everything, we live in a world where you alway have to be right, where being wrong is a sign of weakness, but in all of that we lose sight of what is quite possibly the biggest characteristics Christians are supposed to have: Humility. I have come to the conclusion that humility and I have a Love/Hate relationship, I love to think I'm humble, but at the time absolutely hate being humbled, having said this I am the last person who has any right to talk about humility. But I do think it is something that we have sorely neglected in our walks (or maybe I'm the one that neglects it and would just like to believe that other people forget it too.)

I'm not leading up to some big finale here, just a simple thought , how often in my arrogance have I missed the opportunity to serve someone? How often have I missed the opportunity to witness because my nose was so high in the air? How often have I more or less told God "You can sit this on out, I think I have a better handle on this than you." More than I care to count, but thank God for Grace.

Standing on the cliff

I fell like life has been like walking a winding path through a woods, one where you can never quite see what comes next. For the past few months it feels like the trees have been thinning, allowing me to get a little more of a glimpse of what’s ahead at each turn. Now it feels like I’ve made it out of the woods and I’m standing on a cliff looking out into the ocean. A deep, wild, scary, and uncharted place full of danger and uncertainty. I’m faced with 2 choices do I turn around and go back the way I came or do I dive off into the wild, untamed ocean on a new adventure? One where nothing is familiar, where I’m walking through uncharted territory. What scares me is not what’s ahead, what scares me is that I’ve been here before, and the last time I was here, I turned around and went back down the familiar path, too scared to jump. I don’t know when the moment to jump will come, but I know it will come. The beautiful thing about being here is that I know I have a little time to rest before the jump comes, but when the moment comes to jump it catches you completely off guard, and in the middle of a storm. I’m asking that those of you that read this would be praying that when the moment does come that I can go forward, cause I don’t feel like I’ll be given an opportunity like this again, where I know that if I jump life will be crazier than I could ever imagine. But if I turn around and walk back life will still be good, but not what it could be, and I don’t want to miss this opportunity. I know that I am not the same man I was the last time I was here, I know that God has been growing me and changing my mind, and bringing the people into my life that can help me on this journey. I'll try to do a better job of posting on here to keep you updated on what happens. Thank you for praying.