Killing Myself

Don't worry. I am planning no such thing! I have been a strong proponent of staying fit most of my adult life. I've taught Kung Fu for a decade and a half, been through two summers of US Army physical training, and was a gymnast in collage. About a week and half ago, I weighed in at 260 pounds during an insurance physical. I noticed that I felt pain when trying to tie my own shoes. I became winded just playing with my four-year-old daughter.

I don't understand how any of my Kung Fu students can take what I have to say about health to heart when I am so out of shape.

I've been reading the book by Kevin Trudeau, Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About. If you can get past his obvious and admitted sales pitch, he offers a perspective on healthy living without drugs or surgery that I have understood and raved about from the time I started teaching Kung Fu. Reading his "tirade" about how we are killing ourselves brought my attention to the way I was eating, avoiding exercise, and living with pain that's unnatural for a man of 39 years (my previous post was on my birthday).

Today is the 5th day of my new routine. I'm avoiding calling what I'm doing a "diet" because I want to make this lifestyle a habit and not a phase I am going through or a fad I latched onto.

I get up and drink water.
I exercise (a Tibetan Chi Gung I learned from an old Chinese guy).
I eat a good and filling breakfast.
I snack only on nuts, fruits, and an occasional bottle of fruit juice.
I drink water throughout the day. ( I am beginning to crave it.)
The largest part of my lunch and supper is salad, but some meat and starch are not forbidden.
I drink water before going to bed.

Notice, I have given up all carbonated beverages (even my Diet Pepsi and Diet Dr. Peppers)!After only 5 days, I can't say that I've lost weight, but I've felt better today, all day, because of the choices I made.

Standing Next to Steven

The origins of the address of my blog are not clouded in mystery. My closest friends and I share a common view of how God chooses to bless us, in particular me, my wife, and our daughter. It all too often seems as though blessings fall from the sky, unbidden, to more than provide for our physical and financial needs. John Alan Turner wrote about me on his blog last September 2nd (http://johnalanturner.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_johnalanturner_archive.html) that "so many good things happen to him, that all I have to do is stand next to him -- something outrageously cool is bound to fall on me."

I would love to tell you that it's because I'm living right, but I'd be lying. I still worry that I'm not doing enough or working hard enough to earn what I make. (I almost edited that last sentence, but look at the last two words to see into my heart.) He keeps on blessing me in spite of my undeserving behavior and attitudes.

He allows the sun to shine on us all. He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. If He clothes, feeds, and provides abundantly for me in spite of my efforts to earn it all, perhaps I don't have to earn all of His gifts. Maybe my salvation has already been paid for in full without my having earned it. That being said, I am all the more appreciative of it.

Not Bad

I wonder why, when asked "how are you doing?" that I answer with "not bad" instead of "I'm very blessed."

Think about it. How should people of faith answer that question? Should we qualify how good we feel with words that suggest that we are not aware of the vast and plentiful blessings we enjoy because God chooses to be gracious toward us? Should we hide behind the wisdom of this world and say that we are "lucky" to have what we have? I'm not talking about material blessings, but the life we have and the choices we have when living it. Is this world in all of its complexity an accident, and are the people who live here merely a coincidental jumble of cells that fell or grew into this specialized and very complex order ALL BY CHANCE?

Seriously, if God created us in His image, and if we are to live an abundant life, what is the answer to the question, "How are you doing?"

Let me know how you would answer the question. I just want to count a few blessings in response to my asking it of myself.

The Lord is taking very good care of my family with my wife's and my new jobs.

I am happy to announce that I discovered I had another reader. That brings the total to three. I may even have as many as four, but there is little proof of this.