Fat People. Everywhere

I know I'm overweight. Obviously (from firsthand observation), wearing a bikini top or any type of swimsuit is acceptable at the beach. No matter your level of obesity. Is that being secure in your body image, or just plain sloppy? It's a rhetorical question from my perspective, as I don't sunbathe. At all. My pale, white skin only burns and generally the sun gives me hives.


Yet, I'm appalled/intrigued by the number of adults who blithely parade to the pool, around the beach, with large guts and man boobs on full display. I'm trying to consider it "freeing". No need to suck in my tummy. Unfortunately, my conditioning precludes a totally relaxed posture.


What do people eat? Why do so many get so fat? I'm convinced it's a combination of over stimulation-numbing. Too much Musak. Too much film, Internet and television violence. Fear of being silent, contemplative, alone, unstimulated. We're all so over-stimulated from environmental and airwaves excesses, all-access to everything 24/7 with our electronic devices, that silence and solitude are a foreign country. A country everyone avoids--choosing to stay in the familiar, no matter how deadening.

We eat the fastest, tastiest food quickly, compulsively; without really chewing, tasting, savoring. We turn on music, television, videos, social media, Internet fog--distraction, noise.

Because our brains are filled to overflowing with the pervasive wild things of noise and violence, our sub-conscious runs for cover--seeks soothing. The momentary pleasures of taste and satiation; the diversions of the uncensored media... These wreck us. Our health and fitness deteriorates; our brains atrophy. We are all numbed-down and dumbed-down, reclusive in the midst of the maelstrom.

Living consciously, vividly, with an inquiring mind and a teachable spirit is a daily challenge. How to shut out the clatter, the excesses without resorting continually to mental and emotional withdrawal? Seeking to live a thoughtful and kind life requires tremendous energy. Strong character.

I can't think living well is even possible without the work of the Holy Spirit; the promise of God's peace that surpasses all understanding. The opportunities to be in the moment; to seek the simple choices to tune-in to and savor both beauty and quiet, as well the dynamic forces of our world and universe: the oceans, the tides, mountains and plains, the sky, day and night, twilight and daybreak, the clouds and the stars, the wind and the storms. Sunshine and cool breezes, stately trees and blooming flowers. The seasons and the passing of time.


We are uniquely human. We can reflect and regroup. Reconsider and re-invent. We can choose to live well; act humanely. We can take control of our five senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, seeing. We have choices. We're not in this alone. We can walk closely with God, live and love as Jesus did, welcome the Holy Spirit to guide and remind, and rejoice in the realities of redemption, forgiveness, and life everlasting.

For now, the challenge is to live well and to be kind. To live life in the realities of this time and this culture, while pro-actively caring for our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Intentionality.

Faith-Grace

Recent events in my family of origin have highlighted how easily we revert to/hold onto a flawed view of God's grace and human fragility.

Unfortunately, it seems that God allows a whole lot more ambiguous and painful things to enter our lives than we were led to believe in our younger days. There was definitely a teaching that if we followed Christ perfectly we could be spared most of the nastiness of life. Turns out that bad things happen to Christ followers, too. Faith, prayer, legalism, etc. can't cure mental illness.

Funny... Legalistic Christians can accept cancer, disease, tragedy, etc. as just the experience of every life, but there's a bias that believes that mental illness hinges on a right relationship with God. Now, that's a slippery slope that we watched our mom slide down. Repeatedly.

Mental illness was the background of our family relationships. As was faith in an omnipotent God, and his call on us as Christ-followers to walk a righteous path.

The fact that my siblings have built healthy, loving families who continue to walk with the Lord is precisely attributable to prayerful grandparents, parents, and aunts and uncles. And, to God's grace and unconditional love.

 

Child Evangelism Fellowship

 

Mom's after-school Bible clubs were a huge part of my childhood. While I may have not always wanted to attend and been a bit embarrassed that the teacher was usually my mom, we had dozens if not hundreds of these lessons in our home throughout the year, and in our backyard (garden) in the summertime.

 

Flannel-graph. Quiet chair prize. Scripture memorization. Treats, sometimes.

-source-

 

Throughout mom's lifetime and despite her struggles with mental illness, she was faithful to CEF. Definitely, one of her callings.

 

The reason I'm reminiscing about this today, is that my brother PJ has been volunteering in the Peoria office two days this week. He's on medical leave and looking for worthwhile places to invest his time.

 

 

 

 

Favorite Verse and Life Lessons

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ Jeremiah 29:11

 

 

Joe Stowell, today's Strength for the Journey...

I’ll be the first to admit that trusting in God’s providence is hard to do when it comes to difficult circumstances over which I have no control. God’s work is often behind-the-scenes, hidden from our view. He doesn’t give a play-by-play on everything He is doing to coordinate the details of His providential plans. In fact, often His work is most clearly seen in the rearview mirror. But I’ve looked back enough times to see and trust that my life is not a product of good or bad luck, or of random coincidences. It is divinely shaped and guided by the providential hand of God toward a wonderful conclusion.

So today, let’s choose to align our perspective and even our vocabulary with God’s. No more “luck” and no more “coincidences”! It won’t make for memorable movie quotes, but it will make for an infinitely more meaningful and biblically lived life!

 

It All Goes Back in the Box

http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/monopoly-photoshop-template/

 

 

This is considered one of John Ortberg's best messages ever. Today I'm as blessed hearing it as I've been every time.

 

It's so true. It All Goes Back in the Box.

 

CATASTROPHE THEORY AND FAITH

Alone for awhile this morning, an email from my friend BB got me thinking and then writing about matters of faith and my spiritual journey. That led to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church website, and a John Ortberg message on Forgiveness from his recent series, Who was This Guy?. I know that this is one subject I'll always need to pursue. Forgiveness is a grace I need to practice over and over again.

For a lot of the past few weeks I've been strung-out with fears, anxiety, and my default catastrofying. (Spellcheck doesn't like that word, but it's real. Very real. I've been there too many times. And, psychologists have written much on catastrophe theory as social response.) I know when I'm doing it, or at least eventually own it, but it's so real when I'm in the middle.

I'm over it now. My perspective is clearer; I just have to make sure I don't go too far in the other direction. For me, that would be grandiosity--such a feeling of well-being that all things are possible, and affordable, doable, and brilliant.

Anyway, my conversation with BB led me to some very favorite verses:

Jeremiah 29:11-13
New International Version (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you Hope and a future.
12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.