Accountability Post #5

I was really hoping it would still be raining this morning when I woke up because running in the rain is totally kick-butt!  But it wasn’t.  Instead, I had a headache.  Not quite a fair trade.  I actually ended up walking for a little stretch after a mighty hill.  It always feels so shameful, but I think it also felt much better than potentially falling over.  Fair trade!

The words, “In the year that King Uzziah died…” have the same effect on me that the words, “In the year of our Lord, 1314…” do.  I feel like I could almost quote the whole thing.  It’s SO well known if you work in or attend a youth group.  We [in the business] use Isaiah 6 as a template to devoting our lives to God’s work, especially Evangelism.  

It’s interesting the message God gives Isaiah though: definitely not one of Grace and the Gospel.  Instead He basically says He’s going to rip the whole rebellious Nation down from top to bottom, with no chance of forgiveness, till there’s nothing left of that mighty tree but an old stump.  The “old stump” – He adds right at the end – is the “Holy Seed” or “Offspring.”

So basically, there was something Pure at the core of those Holy Kids that walked away, and God let them get torn all the way down till there was nothing left but that tiny Seed of Faith.  Sounds hard to swallow…

God, maybe I wouldn’t say, “Here am I!  Send me.”  so quickly if I knew that was the message I’d have to deliver, but I guess Love is pretty hard like that sometimes.  After all, Your love for us hurt You pretty badly too.  I’m open to sacrificing for my friends as well then.  Fair trade!  Amen.

This is to good to pass up…

Don showed me this today.  I MUST do this at some point!

[Flashlight Mod]

Now if I could just find a “Build your own XBox360 for under $22″ mod. 

Accountability Post #4

No running today.  [shucks...] I had to be in at work early, and I’m sorry, waking up at 6 to go running is just to much! 

I did, however, read my chapter for the day.  (Isaiah 5)

Wow.  In the short little time this planet and it’s people have existed by God’s standards, He has really had to endure great amounts of heart ache!  Really makes me see how ridiculous my little Puffed Up moments and Selfish moments are in the scope of time.  Like this awesome “Lord of Host”, this patient “Holy God” needs to concern Himself with my inane complaints when His heart has been broken over greater disagreements with the sons of men.

The chapter starts beautifully:  very Song of Solomon-esque.  He calls Israel His vineyard and He describes the pains that He went through to prepare it and cultivate it, but when He “looked for it to yield grapes, it yielded wild grapes.”  Bloodshed instead of Justice; Complaining instead of Righteousness.  So He allows that the protection be removed and the vineyard (of His love and hard work) is to be trampled, destroyed and turned to waste.  I can’t imagine what that would feel like for our God, and then to think that He did that time and time again with Israel, and ultimately watched the same thing happen to His Son on the cross.

I really don’t ever want to complain again, but realizing that I probably will…

God, please forgive me of my trivial complaints.  Make my eyes wide enough to see with Your scope.  Amen.

Accountability Post #3

Today I tried to remember all the senses and feelings of running Cross Country in High School.  The anxiety of the pre-stretches, the panic and pounding bodies after the gun shot, the thinning out of the crowd to the eventual feeling of being on your own, the jarring of the legs running down hill, the glory of passing another runner on the uphill and the exhilaration of the final straight away.

I pushed really hard today.  I was glad to remember that it hurt back then too.  :)  Coincidentally, I still hate lunges.  I won’t be using any stairs today.

Isaiah 3 shows what life begins to look like when God removes Himself from our aid.  Terrifying, Frustrated and Sad.  (It actually says there would be more baldness in vs. 24)  But God (and Isaiah) are kind for not staying there for long.  Chapter 4 – the shortest chapter in Isaiah – returns the Kingdom of God and the glory of His Children who remain faithful!

God, when You return, find Faith and Endurance in me and my loved ones.  Amen

Accountability Post #2

Ouch.

That’s more like what I thought running was going to be like.  Yesterday, I think I caught my body off guard.  It didn’t hurt that bad.  It was still waking up as I finished my stretches, so it had no time to retaliate before I started running.  Not today though!  It had a whole day of accumulated bitterness toward me to wake up to this morning.

Isaiah 2 contains one of those infamous comparisons:  Why would I follow God’s Law if following the law of the land is more fun?  I used to ask that question out loud all the time when I thought I deserved something better.  Now I just ask it privately when I’m being retarded.

When I was around people at school that cussed or told dirty jokes, I would think about how well I’d fit in if I wasn’t a Christian. Or when I was really wanting a girlfriend or a wife, I would think about all the girls I could mess around with if I wasn’t “trying to be pure.”  [aside:  I was to retarded then for a girl to notice me anyhow.]  Now I look back at that question, I look at how the Lord is using me now, and I’m humbled that the question ever crossed my lips.  

v.11  ”The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

God, press out my aches and pains and my proud demands.  Let me run with You.  Amen

Accountability Post #1

Have you ever heard the expression, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired?”  Well, I’m getting my B-Hinney in gear today.  

Ever since a Heart Disease knocked me down in 2002, I haven’t been able to return to my standard exercise routine.  I’ve also picked up a pleasant abnormality called Fibromyalgia, which, among other things, grants me constant muscle pain and chronic fatigue… yummy!  [Fibromyalgiaman]  There isn’t really a cure, but apparently the way to decrease all symptoms is to eat well and get in shape.  We’ll work on the “eating well” thing later, but for now, I’ve got to exercise to stop being sick and tired.

I’ve decided to do 2 things with that.

First, I’m going to blog a daily “accountability post.”  I won’t assume that there are some of you that will be keeping up with this excitement, but it will help me to imagine that people are going to give me guilt if I skip a day.  I’m taking it slow, and I even plan on taking Friday – Saturday – Sunday off.  I figure the point is to be slowly getting back in shape instead of slowly getting worse.

Second, I’m going to tie it to a book of the Bible to read along with it – not at the same time, of course.  I’ve chosen Isaiah because I need to study it again, and it’s nice and long (as previously stated, I’m taking it slow.)  Today I read Isaiah 1 (again).

Along with the fact that it’s tied to a really cool Jon Foreman song, I love how God starts this passage of rebuke by calling us His “children.”  We read it and only see the rebuke and anger, but the whole thing is really said in the context of God’s broken heart for His kids walking away from Him.

God, give me the strength to run, and give me a heart that hurts as Your heart does.  Amen.