Losing to Gain

No fast food

No processed junk food in the house

No excuse for not working out or eating well when on vacation/travelling

Drastically reduce amount of tv after kids are in bed

Restriction. 

Restriction.

Restriction.

Why do I follow the rules? Because I want to be skinny? Hardly. In fact, contrary to pop culture belief, I don't give a rat's nose what other people think of my body. I certainly wouldn't keep to all of those "restrictions" just for other people. 

I do it for me. I want to be happy. I want to be joy-filled and I want to be physically well. Funny, some of those desires were the very same that once drove me to drive-thru windows, let me snack on whatever I wanted, and let myself "off the hook" from health whenever I traveled.

What is NOT so funny is that those previous pursuits (fast food, junk food, etc) only brought me temporary (and false) joy. AND they came at a very high cost. The freer I thought I was in making my decisions about my life and health, the more permanently I built a prison around myself.

When it comes to being dependent on God, aren't we the same way?

No coveting your neighbor

No holding grudges

No forgetting about the downtrodden or less fortunate

Restriction.

Restriction.

Restriction.

And don't we tend to look at God's guidances for living and shrug them off at times, instead choosing what we perceive to be freedom?

And all along, if we had kept up the discipline God asked of us, we would have found FREEDOM. True, unbridled freedom, given freely to us by the One who gave up so much that we might be free.

I have lost 25 pounds over the last year of following a whole new set of life's disciplines. In doing so, I have found FREEDOM. I was thinking the other day that beating obesity has felt to me like waking up from a long slumber to a really great day. I look back at my previous life of fighting for certain freedoms and now see how all those "restrictions" brought me freedoms I couldn't have imagined.

I just finished reading "Every Body Matters" by Gary Thomas and I am inspired to embrace the disciplines of my faith with the same vigor I embraced my workouts and my overhauled kitchen. Perhaps then, when I am more completely dependent on Jesus and the practice of recommitting to him as follower, I will find more FREEDOMS. Freedoms like I couldn't have imagined.

And that's what I'll be praying for you too.

Amen!