Tag Archives: God

Strength Training

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Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.  Isaiah 40:28-31 NLT

I enjoy working out.  Seriously!  I don’t enjoy running so much, but I like weight training, walking, and most recently Zumba which is basically dancing your rear-end off with friends for an hour at a time to fun, bass pumping music.  Over the years I’ve learned that strength is gained not only in jumping, running, or even necessarily repeating a motion over and over.  Sometimes it’s gained by assuming a position and holding it for a long time, completely still.  Well, almost completely still.  Continue reading →

Faith Hero #1: Joseph

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The story of Joseph has been one of my favorites for a long time, but especially lately.  If you are lacking faith or need encouragement about having to wait on God, dealing with the unfairness of life sometimes, trusting even when it seems God has left, even reconciling family relationships, you should read his story (Genesis 37-50).

I read his story again this morning and was moved several times to tears.  As I read, I tried to imagine his emotions, the surroundings, the events and life that happened in between the lines of Genesis.   Having heard the story so many times as I grew up, I read it in The Message version today.  I really took my time to think as I followed him from being born to a joyful and relieved mother and father who had waited a long time for his arrival, to growing strong and handsome as the favored son, to being betrayed and disposed of by jealous brothers, to success then unjust imprisonment, to being forgotten and waiting years for change, to success again and eventually restoration of his relationship with his family.

Can you hear his voice yelling up to his brothers, who sat calmly by eating their dinner, as he yelled for them to pull him up out of the cistern?  Continue reading →

Sometimes video games imitate life

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I don’t know about you but I can really get worked up playing video games.  Whether it’s frustration over dying for the 372nd time or tension over getting through a tough level or even fear in facing a threatening enemy, my emotions are definitely involved.  This even happened when I was playing Atari as a teenager and my character was simply a square moving about a grid that was supposed to be a castle.  I suppose my vivid imagination doesn’t help.

You may think it’s crazy, but I realize that as far as I’m concerned, video games tend to imitate life – or at least my style of participation in life.  When faced with a task that looks incredible and impossible, I actually can get a faster heartbeat and have to sit on the edge of my seat while I give it a try.  This anticipation or fear can actually make it harder to accomplish the task at hand because I’m not thinking as clearly – I’m reacting – actually I’m flailing around hoping that by some miracle my crazed movements will accidentally slice or pop or defeat my foe.  Continue reading →

Faithful One

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I find no hope within to call my own
For I am frail of heart, my strength is gone
But deep within my soul is rising up a song
Here in the comfort of the faithful one…

(“Faithful One” by Selah, Duets album ©2006)

I found myself identifying so much with these words as I drove home from work, my iPod earbuds serving their purpose of pumping music into my heart and soul.   Music is one of my most favorite things God created.  Sometimes when I’m tired or when “stuff” has pressed me down I forget and don’t put my iPod on or listen to the radio – I’m glad I thought to listen yesterday. Continue reading →

Good Pain

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One of the odd things about my breast cancer, when I discovered it almost 7 years ago, was that I had no symptoms other than the tiny lump I had found by pressing with my hand one morning.  I told my surgeon, puzzled, “But I don’t feel sick, I haven’t had any other problems.”  He said, “You wouldn’t at this point.  Cancer is simply new cell growth in a place where it’s not supposed to be.  So unless it had grown very large you wouldn’t otherwise know it was there.”  What a sneaky disease.  I’m so thankful I found it when I did.

No one wants to live with ongoing pain, although some unfortunately do.  It’s a bother.  It hurts.  It disrupts our usual way of life and keep us from doing the things we need to or want to do.  I believe it would actually be worse to live without it.  Continue reading →

Narrow Path 201

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If walking with God was categorized like college courses, I think I’ve moved past level 101 by now.  I might even be presumptive enough to say I’m in 301, but just as soon as I claim something like that, God might say “Well then, little wise one, time for a pop quiz or comprehensive exam!”

I HAVE learned a lot in these 43 years so far, about 38 of those actually on the path with Jesus.  I’ve been thinking today about some of the lessons I’ve learned most recently:  Continue reading →

Once Upon a Time…

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I’ve always loved a good story.  My dad used to make them up for us at bedtime, we read scores of them growing up and traveled to far away worlds in our hearts and minds, we’ve made them up for each other on long road trips.  Sometimes we played that game where each person makes one part of a story and you end up with a bunch of weird, funny nonsense.  This morning in church, I was reminded by the pastor’s message that we’re all living a story.

In a good story you’ll find a character, or characters, facing and doing what they can to overcome obstacles to achieve something, to reach a desired outcome.  You know, protagonist, antagonist, plot, setting, climax, resolution of conflict, and more.

What type of story are you living in?  How about me? Continue reading →

Myth Buster

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Have you ever seen the show “Myth Busters”?  The crew on the show takes something that’s been shown in a movie or TV show and tries it out in real life to see if it could really happen.  For instance, one time they tried using a single sword swipe to cut a pole in half as seen in a ninja flick.  Another time they tried shooting a circle of holes in a second-story floor with guns to see if the circle of wood the gunman was standing on would fall to the story underneath.  It’s a lot of fun to watch.  Sometimes the amazing feat proves to be actually doable, other times not even close.

In a loosely related way, sometimes I feel the need to search out the Scriptures to back up a claim about God – his character, the way He interacts with us, his promises, etc.   Yesterday I was thinking about how it’s often said God is interested in and involved in the details of our lives here on earth.  Is that true or just a myth? Continue reading →

Processing

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The cold I’ve been fighting is of the obstinate, lingering kind and so I’ve not felt like blogging or doing much conversing for the last week or so.  That is definitely NOT usually my nature.  I’m a verbal processor to the core.  I need to talk to people when I’m working through thoughts, making decisions, questioning and trying to figure something out, brainstorming -you name it, I need to talk about it.  Continue reading →