“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV)
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” (3 John 1:2 KJV)
“For physical exercise is profitable for a short time, but godliness is profitable for everything, having the promise of life – of life that now is, and of the life that is coming.” (1 Timothy 4:8 AFV)
My turnaround actually began in July of 2017. This is the month in which the Lord gave me one of the greatest gifts of my life. Through circumstances which I may share at a later date, my granddaughter Savannah came to live with us. Over the next few months we became her permanent guardians. Having a 9 year old to raise woke me up to the fact that I had responsibilities in life beyond myself to live for. It helped me to look beyond my own needs to the needs of those with whom the Lord had blessed me.
As 2017 was coming to a close I had the desire to set some goals for 2018. I had given up on New Year’s Resolutions years ago. However, there was something stirring within me to resurrect this old practice and give it another shot. My most pressing need was my weight. My most important need was to rebuild my relationship with my Lord Jesus (who I actually had not allowed to be Lord in anything other than title for quite some time). Being over 200 pounds overweight was taking a heavy toll on my body (pun intended). I was deeply aware of my physical and spiritual needs and was ready to dig in and do something about it. Hence, I made 2 resolutions: pray and lose weight.
I was working part time at Dollar Tree at the time, and right next door was a new Planet Fitness. Every time I went past it I would hear a little voice within me say, “that’s where you belong.” During the second week of January, 2018, after ignoring that voice for almost 6 months, I obeyed the voice within me and became a member of the Kentwood Planet Fitness. I remember, as if it was yesterday, how hard those first 30 days were. I was so far out of shape that I was unable to do anything on 90% of the strength equipment. On the first day, after about 30 minutes of frustration and humiliation going from machine to machine only to get off thinking, “this one’s not for me,” I was ready to throw in the towel. I gave up on the strength equipment and moved to a treadmill. I put the treadmill on 2 miles per hour with no incline and set it for 30 minutes. I was ready to go. After 5 minutes my heart was pounding, my knees were aching (I had not followed the doctor’s advice in following up after knee surgery and now I was paying the price), I had broken out in a sweat, and decided that was enough for me. I probably would not have returned had it not been for a kindly older woman who saw me struggling and gave me a word of encouragement. She said some things that stuck with me. She smiled at me and said, “Embarrassing isn’t it? Looking around and seeing old ladies like me making it look easy probably doesn’t do much for your ego. It wasn’t always this easy for me. I was just like you on my first day. I am proud of you. Believe it or not, if you don’t quit it will get better. It did for me. let me ask you something, ‘How much exercise did you do yesterday?’ I responded, “None.” She continued, “Even if you were only able to walk 1 minute on the tread mill, and do 5 minutes on the machines, that is 6 minutes more than yesterday. You should be patting yourself on the back. Come back tomorrow and see if if you can do 7 minutes.” (I found out later that she was 93 years “young”).
I went to the gym every day for the next 30 days. Each day was basically the same. I would I would walk into the gym, struggle, decide to quit, and then have someone stop by and give me a word of encouragement. The Lord knew just what I needed to keep me going and He gave it to me each and every day. By the end of the 30 days I was able to do just enough on the equipment to realize I was making progress, and cement my decision to never turn back. During those 30 days I had also resurrected the daily practice of prayer. What started as a commitment to a resolution, quickly turned into a renewed friendship with Jesus that was changing me from the inside out. While I had never completely abandoned my relationship with Him, I had definitely made far less of it than I could, or should, have. He was bringing me back to life on the inside, which was what was giving me the strength to make the needed changes on the outside.
Over the next 9 months I not only lost my first 50 pounds, and dramatically increased my strength and stamina, I began to focus on “fitness” (spirit, soul, and body) rather than just try to lose weight. As my mind was becoming renewed, and my body started to become disciplined and enlivened, I began learning to live from my spirit in cooperation with the Spirit of God who lived within me. For the first time in years the Word of God became alive within me and actually started directing my path. At this point, I want to share 3 things that I think will help you like they did me:
- If you have not already done this, make Jesus the Lord of your life. He loves you and longs to not only make heaven available to you in the future, but to start bringing all of the resources of heaven into your life today. He will not condemn you for your issues, He will save you from all that is weighing you down. It really is simple. All you need to do is call out to Him. Let Him know that you realize that your life is not perfect, that you have “sinned” (made mistakes, done things you know were not pleasing to Him, and have come short of God’s perfection) and are ready to be forgiven. He loves you more than you have the capacity to grasp and is waiting for you to give Him the opportunity to partner with you in the rest of your life.
- When you are ready to make changes, or improvements in your life, make an upfront commitment to do it for a minimum of 30 days. They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit, I recommend at least 30 days to really make it stick.
- Finally, while setting goals is important, as you get started I recommend that you keep your focus on what you are doing, not the results. Over time, the results will come. Learn to embrace and enjoy the “journey.” Too much focus on the “destination” can become overwhelming (especially if you have a long way to go). Obviously there is a balance here, but I have found that in that balance leaning into the daily activities, and learning to enjoy what you are doing regardless of short term results, brings a greater degree of daily happiness and brings better long term results.
I am thrilled to be able to report that I was ready to move back into a full time job and get life running at full speed once again. That was when I approached the manager of my Planet Fitness with an “offer he couldn’t refuse.” We will talk about that tomorrow.