Cutting Phase

In the past year I have been working out pretty faithfully, and I am happy with the results. I'm no Hugh Jackman, but I've gained a considerable amount of muscle compared with what I had 4 years ago. I'm about 185 lbs today while I was about 165 my sophmore year, and much of it is muscle. It feels good, but if you know anything about building mass with a work out program, you know that in order to gain muscle you must gain a percentage of fat along with it. This is called the "bulking phase" of a workout plan. You eat a ton of protein and food and lift a ton of weight to stimulate muscle growth. Once you've gained a significant amount, you enter the "Cutting Phase." This is the phase that involves a lot of cardio to shed all of those excess fat cells that came with the muscle. The result is a healthy, lean muscular look.

I think a similar principle can be applied to our spiritual growth. God takes us through seasons that give us extraordinary insight into His Word, whether it be through a sermon series or a Bible class or a good book. We grow immensely, but along with our spiritual muscle comes excess fat or bad theology. While these pounds were probably necessary at the time to allow us to grow comfortably, you know that you'll be better off if you burn that fat.

My college years served to enlighten my mind to the Christian's role in God's plan. This past year has expanded my awareness of the Lord's role in His mission on this earth. I've concluded that the Lord is so powerful and so worthy of our trust that there is little reason to worry about personal inadequacies with regards to serving Him. Also, I've learned to silence the voice in my mind that tries to make me feel guilty when I've done nothing wrong. Even better I've removed many idols from my life, including ones that were occupying the high places. This is all good, spiritual muscle.

Yet along with that growth has come with some false ideas. I've learned to rely on the Lord so much that I might be losing sight of what he may be waiting for ME to do. In previous posts, I've talked a bunch about having a willingness to do nothing and replace our ambition with faith. This is all well and good, but when the Lord calls you to actually DO SOMETHING, you should have no argument.

Needless to say, I believe the Lord has recently challenged me to start a cutting phase: the depression has got to go.

I've allowed myself to live life in an attitudinal rut for quite a while now (especially at work), and just recently I've seen that it is all my fault. I've allowed self-pity to sneak in to my life. When I should be exhibiting Christ to people around me, I've been acting like a sissy girl about my circumstances. That evidences a lack of faith, and communicates a false message that our attitudes should be subject to our feelings. My life has been preaching a false gospel.

No one can control their feelings, but we can control how we respond to those feelings, and I have let my feelings run me right over. Though Jesus was a man well aquainted with the sorrows of life, I do not believe he was the unrelenting downer of every group he found himself in. At some point we have to rise up against our feelings and take responsibility for our attitudes.

Enough with the whining. No more complaining. I have been reminded that I alone hold the keys to my spiritual vitality. God's not going to appear in front of me and do some kind of dance to jar me from my grouchiness. It is completely up to me how I respond to my circumstances, and I feel that I will not make it to the next step until I learn that every day is a gift and should be lived to its fullest potential.

The thing about cardio is you just have to do it. Don't think about it, just start running. Get on that stair stepper and start sweating! Like Nike says... Just Do It. Perhaps this will serve as a fitting theme to the next couple of months for me to shed this fat.

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Never Wrong to Love

John 15:12 (New Living Translation)

This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

When you are child trying to do the right thing, there is little confusion about what is right and what is wrong. Your parents or teachers or policemen do the thinking for you, and they set the rules. Those kids who disobey are the bad ones, and the good ones do as they're told. Life isn't easy, but at least it's simple. Then you grow up.

All of the sudden decisions become much more complicated. When you were younger, if you didn't know what the right action was you could ask your nearest authority figure, and they would help you. If you do that now, you're likely to get caught up in a cult or scandal of some sort. In fact, there are no authority figures near you unless you make them an authority. You're an adult. Now you choose what is right and base it on whatever you want (if you live in America). Even if you choose to use the Bible as your authority because you believe it is the Word of God, there are still many complicated decisions to be made. This is evidenced by the verse in Philippians:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Phil. 2:12,13)

Once you decide in your heart to believe that Jesus' sacrifice is your only hope for salvation, there is the matter of the rest of your life to be dealt with. A number of questions result, beginning with this one:

"I believe that Jesus died in my place so that I can be saved and rose again. NOW what am I supposed to do?!"

I once believed that there is a simple answer to that question: Find a Bible-believing church to go to once a week. Pray and read the Bible every day. But how can I give that direction to new Christians when I know people who do those things and are not bearing fruit at all? I can no longer in good conscience deal out those pat answers. The real question is: should I be answering these questions at all? None of the current spiritual questions I have now can be answered with a simple cliche, so why should I think cliches will solve my friends' problems? Lately I have withholding my opinions on what people should do, even if their word choice is indirectly begging me to tell them. I've been refusing to condition them to rely on me rather than Jesus. We'll see how that works out in the coming months. I may be in for some correction.

I love how the Bible doesn't hide the struggle of followers of the Lord to "get it right." Just look at the disciples and Israelites and patriarchs; they are constantly making mistakes even though they are in direct verbal communication with GOD. That speaks to the fact that sin can blind anyone.

This is why it is occasionally important for follows of Christ to come back to the Cliff Notes version of what is "right" to do: Love people as God loves you.

It is never wrong to love someone.

Though it is hard to breach their emotional walls...
Though it is hard to predict how they will respond to your actions...
Though it is hard to avoid misunderstanding and awkward moments...
Though it is hard to forgive past wrongdoings...
Though it is hard to separate their actions from the image of God inside of them...
Though it is hard to give them bad news when you know they need to hear it...
Though it is hard to learn their language...
Though you've tried before and failed...
Though you don't always know how...

It is NEVER wrong to love someone.

That is a clear message from Scripture that gives me comfort. Where there is a risk in a thousand areas in my life that my decisions are wrong, when I am loving someone, I can do no wrong. And this also includes loving myself rightly because self hatred is the same as hating your brother.

May God continually put us in situations that reveal our resistance to loving his image-bearers, so we can repent and be inwardly changed.

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