Discipline...

Paul said that no discipline seemed pleasant at the time and I can so vouch for that right now!  Workouts and dieting have been steady, with only a few cheats here and there during the Christmas festivities.  However, finding the desire to kick into gear again is a bit lacking.  I see the goal and I know where I want to go, but motivation is a factor...

How do we push ourselves in the right direction when we don't really want to?  That's the question I'm dealing with.  I think Mark Driscoll has the answer in his forthcoming book, Who Do You Think You Are?  The major premise is that who we are in Christ must be our primary identity, not our successes, personality, stuff or otherwise.  While I know all of that to be true, I don't know that I'd thought about it as much as  I should!  Being overweight (especially to the degree I am- around 100 lbs., minus 17 as of today!) is a reflection on who I don't think I am.  Just as Adam and Eve, I decided being made in the image of God wasn't enough.  However, Driscoll nails it speaking of us as imagers of God.  I am a reflection of the divine as I was made, not as I have allowed myself to be morphed by the lie!  The lie (just as to Adam & Eve) was that I am not like God and that I needed to add something (the comfort of food and that "control" for me, fruit that made me able to think like God for Adam & Eve) to really be like Him.  However, the truth is that I am like God in every aspect of my created being, but reject that to try and usurp His place....

Hard truth, but the truth.  When I recognize this, I am secure in the knowledge that God made me like Him, to be His image in this world.  This weight loss and physical "renovation" isn't about me, but more about the God who made me.  I'm trying, more than anything else, to return to the man God made me to be, not the man I allowed myself to become.  The only way to get there?  Truth and discipline...

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