Exercise is important. Rest is important. Eating healthy is important. A good work/life balance is important. Taking care of others is important. Self-care is important. Family is important. Spending time with God is very important and for me, for now, writing is important. It slows down the continual inner dialogue in my head. Argh! Everything is important. The baby we had for a season is back safely at home with mama and I have no excuse not to go back to working out daily again because...well...exercise is important. And it went like this: (see pictures below)
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| Trying to bridge |
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| Leg workout |
These photos sum up my life in general. I am a scheduler. I like to fill each minute with all things important. But "distractions" get in the way. This morning for exercise time what got in the way was bulldogs. I am not sure they meant to cause a derailment but they were a big, fat, slobbery distraction. Having them climb on me, step on my hair, lick my face makes me want to quit my workout. So I stand up and do all the things standing only to find that years of dancing have wrecked my knees and the past few years of sitting has made them weak. They hurt and that makes quitting seem like a really great idea. After I finish, I pick up my weights and begin to do some arms workouts only to realize planking with bulldog helped made my hands very sore and tired. Quitting. After 50 minutes I just sit down and snuggle and pet AnnaBelle and Lola, distraction or not.
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| Bulldogs at work |
I feel like the year of 2020 has been filled with many distractions, one right after the other. With everything and so many tasks being important, distractions can derail completion of critical functions. If I don't exercise, I stop losing weight, I lose muscle tone and it is harder when I begin again. If I don't rest enough, I am tired, I am more likely to be less productive. If I don't plan meals so I can eat healthy I won't have the stamina and energy to exercise or rest properly. Balancing work with life is critical so I don't burn out and, for me, caring for others is my work and calling and I often put myself last. I really care about spending time with my family and I never want to be distracted from them and God needs to be number one in my schedule. If I fail to make time for either family or God, they will wait on me but I am the one that suffers emotionally and spiritually. You have now been privy to how my inner dialogue works. And all of it becomes so much that my head feels inhabited by a large, clumsy, slobbery bulldog encouraging me to sit down and snuggle and pet the distraction.
As I study, I picked up my bible and turned to where I left off recently in Hebrews. My bible said this, "Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees." That sentence came from the English Standard Version. In reading various different versions the same verse really hit home in the New Living Translation, "So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees."
Ok, fine. I can do it. It is all but starting again and again, again. Why? Because, as I study in Hebrews, I back up and find that this passage is following the "great crowd of witness as we finish the race" portion. Why are we racing you may as?. Did I sign up for this race? I don't like running? I have weak knees, remember? The writer of Hebrews is reminding the Judean people that have been following Christ, that in a world of distractions, in their case, persecution, Jesus gone and no synagogues to meet in, that it is even more important to stay the course; to run the race. They are encouraged to mark out a path for their feet so that those who are struggling will not fail. In fact, by their efforts, the weak will become strong. Currently, may of us have no church building to go to, the current cultural climate feels persecutory and we struggle to see Jesus. Those of us that can rise above, need to be the runners for those that can't.
So we mark out a path... What that means for us is scheduling. It means we look at that which is edifying, glorifying and productive to God and His kingdom. We mark those as priorities and then we give the rest of our time to those things that make us string for the work. In other words, we find a new grip and we make our knees strong. With a straight and ordered path, when a building camps out in your way, we can work beyond and around them. Maybe taking a brief break to snuggle and pet that distraction but not allowing it to take us off course.
Today
- Make a schedule in eluding healthy work and rest
- Take time to identify your distractions
- Reach out to those struggling that are weak
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