Lot of re-dos lately…

Well another day has come and gone. Its about 6:00pm and I am sitting on the couch with Moriah and Benaiah. Mo is chilin’ and Benaiah is working on homework nothing profound. It makes me think of the play “Our Town.”  Do you remember when they ask the girl after she has died what day she would like to relive, and they suggest “try to make it as normal a day as possible.” Well this is one of those moments that most would probably over look. It is actually quite nice.

I say this to preface where I m going with this post… I have been a lot of re-dos in my life lately. It started about year back. I had just passed the 40 year mark and I was getting pretty chunky and I had decided to lose some weight. I started Valentines with a fairly strict diet. In approximately 2+ months I dropped 60 pounds (re-do #1). At the beginning of the summer I decided now that I lost the weight I should try to do something to get active and physical. I had heard of a program called Couch to 5K (www.c25k.com) and in about six weeks I went from the guy who only ran to the bathroom, refrigerator, or ice cream truck who can now do three a mile (5K) run. I have got to admit this was not easy considering a 30 second run at first almost required an oxygen tank and a defibrillator on stand by (re-do #2).  The third re-do has been the most transforming.

I have been a Christian and been in full-time ministry but had somewhat fallen back from my first love. There are two aspects to personal Christianity. I call it the Mary and Martha. You may remember in the Gospels where Martha was busy doing. she was cooking and serving and taking care of things at hand while Mary sat at Jesus’s feet. Martha got all distraught and went to Jesus and said to Him why does Mary sit here when there is so much to do. Jesus replies saying to the effect that mary had chosen the wiser choice. To sit with Him when there was a oppurtunity was a much wiser choice. While I was in ministry I often was more Martha than Mary. This was to my detriment. Recently I have felt a need to get my spiritual center back and made a purposed decision to go after it. On a recent road trip from Kansas City, Missouri to Clearwater, Florida, I had a lot of time to reflect and I brought a lot of mp3 teachings. I was listening to a wide array of messages about heart attitudes, passion, forgiveness, and others. There was one by Mike Bickle that really got to me on a real foundational basis. It was back to the basics 101. I had been one who would read or listen to commentaries or biographies. I was challenged to get back into the Bible. While running I would listen to teaching mp3’s but everything else was straight Bible. I began reading 5-10 chapters a day. I started in back half of the New Testament Corinthians through Revelations. From there went through Mathew and John. Next I went to the Old Testament in Samuel and am currently in Psalms. At first I was doing it more as a ritual  but over time it has become life changing. I don’t know what my family sees but I noticed I have lost an appetite for much media. I can’t watch as much TV and I much more discerning in what I watch. My Internet habits have also changed sure I can waste time on here but I don’t spend as much on it nor do feel the need to. My outlook has changed. Ok so this might be a mid-life thing but it has been beneficial.