Weekend Warriors

Did you know that you have 640 muscles in your body? That's alot of muscles to move but if you exercise regularly they respond and grow. But, if you exercise every once in awhile and push yourself hard like a "weekend warrior," you will get sore. So, what happens? You stop exercising, only to start the cycle again.

People used to use the mantra, "no pain, no gain." We know that's not true anymore. If you feel pain, that's not so good and you are probably injuring yourself. However, some soreness is to be expected. If you don't push yourself, you won't grow. The soreness is caused by tiny tears in the muscle causing lactic acid. When these tears heal, this is what creates muscle. So, a little pain ain't so bad.

The key is consistency because if you do this off and on without a pattern, nothing much will happen in the long run. Setting some goals also might help. Why are you exercising at all? If it's to get strong and muscular, then the off/on program won't acheive this. The only thing that will is a steady-as-you-go approach, upping up the program levels as you grow.

The very same concept applies to spiritual growth. Your soul will atrophy if you don't attend to it on a regular basis. There will be no growth without regular attention to scripture. Are you an on and off again Christian, much like the weekend warrior? Do you only "grow" once a week at church, then forego your walk the other days of the week? Much like exercise, this won't help you to grow nor make you strong in faith. Your soul needs consistent exposure and immersion with God's word, just like your body's muscles need to be consistently challenged in order to grow.

So, what are you? A committed person looking for growth or someone just passing the time treading water until Sunday comes rolling around again? Where is your commitment level and why?

Think about it but don't tell me, there's a Man Upstairs you need to discuss this with. After all, in the end, it's your soul and your walk, not anyone else's.

This Way, That Way with God's GPS

There was a time when I thought of life like one big chess game. In my mind's eye we'd plot our strategies, and execute our moves and countermoves. If we weren't careful and aware, we could be checked at any given moment.

What an exhausting mindset!

Now, I live differently. I know better. My heart accepts and understands that we are usually right where we are supposed to be. I say "usually" because many times even the most seasoned believers get impatient with the Lord's timeline and go after what they want because they think they know better. Waiting and staying in faith during a holding pattern can certainly test the best of us.

Have you ever been in a plane waiting and waiting to get clearance to take off --or even worse, circling high in the sky above your destination point, anxious to land and get where you're supposed to be? Can you imagine if you took matters into your own hands and took over the cockpit controls because you wanted--no, needed to land or take off now?

Well, in a way, that's exactly what you're doing when you decide you know best and take the reigns! There will be times, perhaps many times, when where we are isn't random or without purpose. In other words, we possibly could be precisely where we're supposed to be because God is setting up a divine appointment.

When I first learned about divine appointments (or DA's), I automatically associated them with incredible "can you believe it" tales. A part of me was wow'd by the stories and intense declarations of the blessings people had experienced....but I have to admit there was a small, secretive part of me that was...um, envious. I mean, I kept hearing stories left and right from fellow Christians about all these death-defying interventions, last minute saves from financial ruin or miraculous healings and I had nothing to share; nothing, nada, zip! My DA cupboards were bare.

How could this be, I wondered? Wasn't I worthy of a DA moment myself? Yesssss, I know we aren't supposed to expect them or heaven forbid, demand that God wave his magic wand and conjure one up for our benefit so I could have my own DA story but still....how come I didn't get one?

I pondered what I perceived as the Lord's oversight when gradually the mental fog lifted. Well, shifted is a more accurate description. Wait...hmmm...maybe I hadn't been deprived after all!

Maybe I had overlooked subtle, arranged situations. Shifting my perspective suddenly revealed a world full of DA's once I turned down expectations from visions of floodlights and angelic choirs. The DA's had been there all along but I had needed to quiet my soul in order to "open the eyes of my heart."

I tried that approach. I wasn't good at it at first. Ok, I'm still not that good at it. I still tend to fill my head and heart with "noise." Yet, it's exactly this mental busyness that filters out the gentle whispers of the Holy Spirit.

So, once I stripped away my expectations of dazzle and bling and shock and awe, what happened?

Well, to be honest, nothing much at first. I think the eyes of my heart needed some time to adjust to the light once I took off the rose colored glasses. But, soon I started to notice little things, like maybe feeling a certain way and then hearing just the right words I needed to hear from a song on the radio. Or, struggling with a faith issue and then having someone pop up out of the blue with an email discussing the very same struggle and offering insight without even knowing my own private issues. Or, hearing a right-on sermon the very day and hour my heart was heavy and full of doubts.

These, I've learned, are my divine appointments. They aren't as grandiose as other peoples' maybe but I'll take them just the same. They were designed especially for me by my Lord and Savior and since I am his creation, I know he knows how best to not only reach me---but to teach me as well.

Can you Support Abortion and still be a Christian?

I read the following article and thought to myself, "how can this be?" How can Christians park their faith on the curb just to support a popular candidate? How do they justify this to themselves---and to God? I am incredulous...ok, perhaps naive to believe that all Christians who say they are Christians will embrace,practice and follow the tenant's of the teachings of Jesus, but stunned all the same. How can one support extinguishing life yet in the next breath pray to the God who gives us all life?
Read on:
Most Members Of Obama's Catholic Advisory Council Members Support Abortion Rights, Opinion Piece Says25 Jun 2008
Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn writes in an opinion piece that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) "sent a clear message" to Democrats who "gravitated" toward Republican candidates because of their opposition to abortion rights by appointing Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) as the head of his National Catholic Advisory Council. According to McGurn, although the council's National Leadership Committee does include some Roman Catholic lawmakers whose "pro-life credentials are impeccable," such as Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), most members of the council have a "seal of approval" from NARAL Pro-Choice America, with 17 of the 21 senators, members of Congress and governors on the committee having a 90% to 100% approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America.To further support his thesis that Obama's Catholic advisory council would be better suited to informing voters about how "extreme" Obama's position on abortion is rather than encouraging Catholic voters to support him, McGurn points out that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), one of the committee's co-chairs, recently was asked by her bishop to stop receiving Holy Communion because of her support for abortion rights.Obama has said that although he supports abortion rights, he acknowledges a "moral dimension" to abortion, and has said that he is willing to listen to abortion-rights opponents and that he wants to work to reduce the number of abortions, according to McGurn. However, Obama's arguments are a "tough sell" to Catholic voters, McGurn writes, adding that Catholic voters who are supporting Obama "have to get around" the Catholic Church's position that abortion is an "intrinsic evil" and is "always and everywhere wrong"

(McGurn, Wall Street Journal, 6/24). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company. © 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/112655.php

A Bend in the Road

As I have often quoted, a bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn!

Right. Life throws us lots of bends and curves all the time. If we aren't watching, these curves can catch us by surprise and we can suddenly find ourselves fighting for control of the steering wheel. We may even land in a ditch. Since life isn't perfect, we know that these hairpin turns will happen from time to time no matter how much we prepare. The trick is not being in a continual flight or fight mode but rather in a fluid state of mind where we do not attempt control everything and everyone.

Sound contradictory? Well, for many years I trained in Aikido. That is a martial art of flow and circular movements. It's an art that uses your opponent's strength against them. Think Steven Siegal and you'll get what I'm saying. And, although he studied Hapkido it's pretty much the same concept. The trick is in not tensing up. You go with the flow of energy instead of fighting it. But, that is not a passive response by any means. It's actually control by relinquishing control.

And, the same can be said with faith. When I try to control everything, when I curl my fingers tight against the steering wheel, that's when I lose my ability to cope with change, disappointment or a shift in direction. I forget that I am not in total control at all. I am just the driver cruising down that proverbial highway. It's when I resist that I have the most troubles, the most profound hurt, the feeling of being overwhelmed. It's a knee jerk response. I'm still new at this and finding myself dwelling in a pit when things don't go "my way" is a very familiar place.

Then, I realize I have a Higher Power in my life now; a Savior who not only put the stars in the sky but knows them all by name---a God so powerful and loving that he died for my sins. Oh, it's not easy this Christian thing, this living by faith-and-not-by sight thing, this releasing of doing things for myself and by myself. I am still a toddler, learning my walk.

So, I look for my encouragement in the only place that is guaranteed to give all the answers I will ever need. This is what I found:

"But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13 NIV

Exactly! You can't drive without crashing if you are always looking in the rear view mirror! From now on I am looking forward out the windshield and leaving the rest to God. I trust he will get me where I'm supposed to end up-- I just hope he remembers where I'm going. He's a busy man, you know.

Just in case, psst it's exit 9, Lord :)

Ask...Believe...Receive

God sends us angels when we need them. Sometimes we don't know we need them but they are sent nonetheless. Like, the time my daughter nearly walked into the path of an oncoming truck and she felt a "shove" that sent her backwards, a shove hard enough to make her fall on her butt as the truck whizzed by. She was only about 7 when this happened and remembers that day as if it were yesterday. Then, zoom ahead 14 years. This time she survived a horrible car accident, the kind even cops marvel that she wasn't severely injured by hitting the steering wheel. The next day she showed me something incredible on her thigh: a handprint. Not hers, but there it was. An angel holding her back from hitting the steering wheel? Nonbelievers say impossible, believers smile and accept that God sends his angels to help us here on earth.

Sometimes God sends us angels in the form of friends and helpers. We never know why people cross our path. Some stay, some leave, some fade away and come back. But always we have to trust why God brings them our way.

I thank God for all the times angels helped me and my family, watching over us and doing God's work. And, I thank God for all my earthly friends who are angels to me as well.

God bless you all! You know who you are!