Denoument

It's been hard to keep track of this blog. I've been busy. I've toyed with stopping entries but I can't because this has been my accountability. I will begin again next Saturday to update. My accountability will become the discipline of this journal.


So to begin again, I will summarize. These are the hard lessons I've learned in the almost two years on this journey. First, there is no substitute for hard work and perseverance. I still stand by my original statement that anyone that tells you that losing weight is easy is selling you something. There is no substitute for discipline and digging in. It is those times when you don't want to do it, whatever that is, whether it's working out, eating right, or thinking right -- that it's got to get done. There is no substitute in this world like doing right especially when doing wrong would be easier. All things are advantageous to me but only some are the better choice. Second, eating and taking care of this mortal frame is just as much a stewardship as taking care of money and time. Two scriptures that caught my attention earlier on is found in I Corinthians 3:16, 17. In these two verses Paul points out, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple." These verses scared me because my poor personal stewardship was causing the destruction of this temple. I understand that eventually the corruptible will take on the incorruptible but the idea of me destroying my own temple was distressing, Last, vigilance is key to taking care of the temple. In Job's speech in the 31t chapter, he sets out his defense by declaring that he has made a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully at a woman. In the same manner, I have made a covenant with my eyes, mouth, and stomach to not look lustfully at food. Food is not wrong. We need it. But, when it becomes the totally of my existence then it is wrong. It becomes that which God warns about in Exodus 20 -- an idol. I worshipped at the altar of the plate to cover emotions, frustrations, and cares. I now focus on food as energy and a God given necessity. But, it is not the central focus.




I am grateful that God has placed me on this path. I am grateful for a faithful wife that has stood by me, literally, through thick and thin. Until next Saturday,....

Away we go...

Walking has been the best rediscovery in this process. I find a track or walkway. I put the headphones on and then I am away. In my head, I review the waste that I have experienced because I have waited this long. I am 44. I wish now that I had stuck to this when I was 24. But, all that can be done is to look ahead to the time when this journey will turn from determination to maintenance. Walking is slowly releasing the bonds that held me to catastrophic disease, chronic fatigue, and claustrophobia in my own skin. I understand that we should all accept who we are. I also know that the person I was, was not the person I was supposed to be.

The end of this journey will come not when I have reached a magic weight, distance traveled, or calories counted. The end will come when I agree with my body that I will never again put myself in harm's way. Perhaps just a shade away from context, a scripture caught hold in my thinking. The passage is from I Corinthians 3: 16, 17,

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Since, I am this temple that the apostle Paul spoke of, then I needed to take better care of this stewardship. Since it was a certainty my body was a temple, then it was in disrepair. God grant me the strength to keep repairing.

October 30 is on its way.