Hey everyone,
I hope you've all had a great week since last Sunday, and that your New Year's holiday was restful! Before I get to the main point of today's blog, I wanted to say something about where the music on the project stands. We've got three songs finished, and although we don't have an official track listing yet, the project will probably have somewhere between 6-8 songs on it. We're just sorta feeling it out and seeing where things go at this point. I talked with the producer and he'd like to get a couple more tracks finished before we release anything quite yet, so it still may be some time before I can post any songs. I'll definitely let you know as things progress.
Ok, formalities aside, I wanted to talk with you about what's been happening in my spiritual life over the last week, and how God's been changing my heart. In my last blog post, I alluded to Romans 12:1-2. Here's the whole passage: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, bbut be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will." Specifically, God has been reminding me of the part about offering our bodies as living sacrifices. Last weekend, I took a long hard look at how I've been taking care of the body that God has given me (or not taking care of it), and He revealed some things I hadn't thought about before.
I've been convinced, for a long time that there are some deep issues with the church and an overall lack of honesty when it comes to sacrificial praise. What I failed to realize is that "the church" is not some abstract notion we can blame when things aren't 100% perfect. If you and I claim to be followers of Christ, then the term "the church" refers to you and I as much as it does to any other Christian. So if "the church" has a problem, then I am as big a part of the problem as anyone else in "the church". So basically, God told me this week that I've got no room to talk about the problems in "the Church" until I get my own temple straightened out. Wow... that one kinda stings a little, doesn't it?
Bottom line is, if I'm 100% honest when it comes to my health, both spiritual and physical, I've been pretty willy-nilly. I'm one of those guys who HATES to read books, for the most part. This has been a real stumbling block for me when it comes to spending time in God's word. I'm also one of those people who LOVES to eat. A LOT. So I've got this two-headed monster of a problem where I'm over-indulging in things that aren't good for my body, God's temple, and I'm starving it of its only connection to the only thing that really gives me life. When I first realized this, I started to feel really hopeless, but God, as unceasingly patient as He is, reminded me of Matthew 18. Even though we are as dumb as sheep sometimes, He loves us so much that He'd search to the ends of the earth to find the one that continually wanders off.
So, it's apparent to me that I need to work on two things - being more diligent about spending time in the Word, and taking better care of my body. For the first problem, I know that God wants me spending time reading His word daily. I'm setting a goal to read through the Bible from top to bottom, one chapter at a time every morning. Each time I write a blog post here, I'll post a summary of which chapters I read on which day of the week. That way, I'll have to 'fess up to the entire internet if I miss a day ;) I'd like to do sort of the same thing for getting physically healthy. I know a few things about where I stand physically and where I need to get to, so I'll keep a summary of my physical stats with each blog post that will look something like this:
Weight: 195 lbs
Body Fat: 18% <-- this one's hard to measure, so I may not be able to update it terribly often
Blood Pressure: 108/80
Heart Rate: 49 BPM
Yep... those are my real stats, as of about a week ago. I'm just under 6 feet tall, so that means my BMI is 27.2. This puts me firmly into the 25 to 29.9 range for being overweight. Healthy BMI for men my age is between 18.5-24.9 and healthy body fat % is 8-18%. I've consulted a physician and they said my target weight is 170 lbs, so I gotta lose about 25 lbs - this would get my BMI down to 23.7, which would be ideal for my body type. Heart rate and blood pressure are good, but only because I'm still relatively young (26). Bottom line is, I need to lose some weight.
So that's what I'm up against this year. Seems pretty daunting, but I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm excited to see where God is leading me through on this crazy ride, and I'm looking forward to becoming less like me and more like the person God wants me to be. Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable. I'll update you on everything next week!
Ben
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