Last time, I gave you TWO AMAZING, UNUSUAL tips to curb sugar. Here are two more.
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Click HERE to continue reading.
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!
You read this stuff because I am full of interesting, unusual advice! Today will not disappoint as I share my top four tips for eating less sugar! (Two tips today, two tips NEXT TIME.)
1. My top tip is perhaps the most controversial, and I will never admit to having said this if you tell someone else that this was my idea.
Liar!
(Confidentially – Shh… Here’s my top tip for eating less sugar.) Wait – A bit of context first – The only part of your body that LOVES sugar, if we’re honest, is our taste buds, and it turns out that most of our sense of taste is related to smell. So – Here’s the tip: (Try this when no one is looking.) Close your eyes, inhale deeply as you lean over that dessert you MUST have, and PRETEND to chew and enjoy it, but really you are just smelling it and looking like a cow chewing it’s cud to onlookers!
(As I said, try this when no one is looking).1
Benefit: You get (almost) all the enjoyment of the experience of eating it without poisoning your body!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
2. Downscale your addictive personality.
Our church has been reaching out to our city’s homeless population, and it is AMAZING how much sugar most of these people who have kicked their drug addictions mainline (Can you mainline sugar?) Whatever.
But let’s face it, mainlining sugar is a LOT healthier than mainlining crystal meth!
Since the reality is that we, too, are just nicely dressed balls of addiction, chasing the wrong desires, let’s learn from them!
Let’s downscale our addictions!
For example, I met a lady last week who stopped smoking and then gained thirty pounds. But stuffing our faces with food is MUCH better than stuffing our faces with cancer sticks! In my case, I am more addicted to sugar than I am to processed chips. So I TRY to eat chips instead of sugar.
Once we’re addicted to chips, it’s easier to wean ourselves off that addiction than a more challenging addiction.
Our addictions have been downscaled!
It’s easier to eat fewer chips than it is to mainline a bit less crystal meth!
Get the pattern? While we’re at it, downscaling our addictions, let’s upscale our Levels of Happiness! Oh, and as we set aside that third ice cream cone, we may find that the ensuing brokenness we experience (Let’s be honest), ushers us closer into the realm of the spiritual as we set aside our addictions and finally ask Him to fill the void.
(And that’s pretty cool, actually.)
. . . we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged.
And may we eventually find something we want EVEN MORE than a fifth ice cream cone, friend.
As the song below sings, “There’s an ache in my heart,” consider offering your emotional brokenness to Jesus instead of numbing the pain with the fruit of addiction again, which will only bite us later. Holy Spirit, would You fill the ache in our hearts with Your presence, Your love, more and more, we pray.
Photo Credit – Sugar Or Crystal Meth? by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!
1 (Yes. I have actually done this -ONCE!- but I will NEVER admit to that either.)
Putting lots of chickens into a cage, cutting off their beaks, and letting them defecate on each other for their entire caged lives because we prefer our chicken sandwich to cost $1.99 instead of $2.56 has, at times, been my church culture.
This financial choice is a particular “church culture”, not “Kingdom living”.
Kingdom living says:
Good people are good to their animals; the “good-hearted” bad people kick and abuse them.
And so we dig deeper into our pockets, where it hurts, and place more coins on the counter for our lunch. OR heaven forbid, we eat a few more vegetables instead of another chicken sandwich because it’s cheaper than another piece of chicken, considering the actual cost of paying for cage-free birds.
This example is an aspect of a church culture (a common behavior) that I experienced many years ago, which I find frustrating.
Some of the very wise, and my heart goes out to you, dear friend, say, “That is not a healthy place,” and do not return to church. I do not blame you. I believe God does not blame you . . .
. . . though He is still pursuing you, dear friend.
Keep looking.
There are safe places to rest. But it might take a bit of seeking. And God will be (Sneakily!1) healing you as you seek a safe group of Jesus-seeking people to belong to. Who you started as won’t be the same person as who you end up as, which is half the joy of the process, actually.
And there will still be annoying parts of church culture to correct, no matter where you call home.
It’s the reason you’re there.
It’s the reason they need you.
Remember: Don’t just “fit in”! Disagree!
Be a jerk! Be you!
Instruct and direct one another using good common sense.
Been disgusted by Christian culture, or church culture, lately? I have too. Jesus was, too. His harshest comments were for the leaders of His church.
Ouch.
May our rears be sore from the spanking that Jesus gives us because it is better to have a sore rear than for our entire selves to be oozing pus from our unhealed diseases – the diseases of pride, love of money, prestige- that we are too proud to ask Jesus to heal.
However, within the mess and the brokenness of Christian culture, in pockets of beauty, is the joy of Christ’s message, called Kingdom living.
Thank you, Lord, for loving the mess that is your church, the mess that is me. Thank you that even here, in the charred remains of my heart, there lies an ember of love that you can fan into flame. Do your good work, dear Jesus. We pray to help us become Kingdom people, not merely robots of Christian culture.
Help those rightly offended by Christian culture to find a home in You, and with other broken people that You also (of course) love, we pray.
And friend, as you grow, learn, talk, and ask God (heaven forbid) for His perspective that is a BIT higher than ours, may you get a bit happier, too, as clearly proven HERE!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Photo Credit – Fun With Jesus And His Friends by BBC Creative on Unsplash
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!
1Oh. And a caveat about this approach is that you must be prepared for… clearing throat… you may be WRONG about ONE of the ideas you hold so dearly. For example, I am listening to a course on Food Ethics, and they are messing with my dogma. That’s when you MAY need some humility, BUT that is a later lesson, and I haven’t found any need to grow in that discipline yet.
We enjoy publishing a letter and sending it to all our friends and family for the Holidays.
In this letter, we tell you some of the embarrassing things they (the other family members and friends) said last year!
(Yes, I take notes on what my friends and family say all year, JUST for this express purpose!)
For some reason, however, not many people talk to me much at the beginning of each year, and they seem a bit sulky. But don’t worry – it doesn’t last long!
I’m glad that YOU like me, at least!
I was looking at my husband with tears filling my eyes after I opened a glimpse of pain deep within my heart.
Andy looked back at me and . . . smirked (!)
Me: “Why are you smirking!?”
Andy: “I think you’re just PMS-ing.”
Andy laughs.
I realize he’s probably right and think, “You know you’ve been married a long time when…”
While driving to the ski hill:
Me to Andy: “Why don’t we drop off our ski boots first this time and then…” etc.
Andy: “But I always do it the same way!”
I thought, “Well, I guess that topic has now been exhausted for all time!”
I can sense a compliment coming. I wait in eager anticipation:
Andy: “Thank you for being so… nice.”
Me: (!!!)
The perils of playing board games with homeschooled kids:
I borrowed a board game from the library based on the movie “Dune.” We recently watched the movie together as a family.
Kyah: “I can’t play that board game!” she announced, frustrated.
Me: “Why?”
Kyah: “I haven’t finished reading the book yet!”
Me: “Maybe you want to play squash with me sometime, Kyah?”
Kyah: “Well, I don’t know. I’m pretty aggressive…” (Even though the wind blows her over sometimes)
Kyah continued, “And I also have martial arts, so I’m pretty busy…”
Kyah: “But I love you so… Yeah, sure.”
Andy called me when he was out buying groceries from the list I wrote for him:
Andy: “So when it says, ‘soy sauce,’ do you mean… ?” He lists 10 related items and brands.
Me: “No, when I say ‘soy sauce,’ I mean the stuff that isn’t actually soy sauce. It says ‘liquid aminos’ or something like that on the bottle.”
Andy: “Oh, ok.”
Andy: “When it says ‘noodles- mushroom’, what kind of noodles are those?”
Me: “Those are the ones that aren’t actually noodles. They just look like noodles. They’re long and thin. They’re in the mushroom section. I don’t know what they’re called.”
Etc.
Etc.
Me: “I feel better because I fasted and prayed today. It gives me hope.”
Andy: “I didn’t fast, but I did have a chicken salad sandwich from X restaurant today, so . . . that probably counts.”
Me: (?) “And why is that?”
Andy: “Because it’s not very good! I didn’t have lunch from Y restaurant!”
So, “fasting” for Andy means eating out at a lower-star-eating establishment. Well, we all start somewhere!
I offered our friend a chocolate chip cookie. She excitedly stretched out her hand to take one, but then a look of horror came over her face, and her hand hovered above the plate mid-air.
She asked with increasing trepidation, “Wait. These don’t have black beans or something like that in them again, do they?!”
Happy New Year, friends.
(May you laugh much at your ridiculousness in the coming year, too!)
God will let you laugh again
Oh, and remember!
The next time you say something stupid (i.e., today?), don’t forget to send it to me so we can laugh at you, too, next January!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Thanks for reading Restoring Life! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and to inflate my ego!
Just because the battle of [insert famous battle name here – I’m not a Historian, ok?] was lost, doesn’t mean those soldiers lost the war too!
The same is true in the war that many in our culture are fighting to open our eyes to the reality that climate change is real.
We’ve lost a battle or two, granted.
For example, consider the implementation of climate solutions and the recent US election. I am not a Harris supporter by any stretch of the imagination. (Also, I’m Canadian, so no one cares who I would have voted for. AND, it’s much easier to criticize leaders trying to create positive change than to come up with real solutions that work!)
The point is that we lost another battle in the war against recognizing that climate change is even a “thing” with the election win of Mr. Trump.
But just because climate change has lost another battle, that doesn’t mean we have lost the war in finding a solution to our climate woes – Not by any stretch.
It is time to close the chapter in the book “Let’s talk about climate change rationally, using science.”
Instead, let’s focus on applying and implementing this one solution.
Let’s focus on food.
No, I did not leave my rationale mind over there as I wrote this post over here.
Stay with me.
In Paul Hawken’s book “Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation,” there is surprising hope in implementing Regenerative Agriculture.
Don’t have time to read?
Check out this free movie, Kiss the Ground Film | Official Website
A Hollywood Actor narrates the movie, so that’s how we know it is the truth!
Just kidding – There is LOTS of science here and a growing movement.
“Kiss the Ground is an audience-supported nonprofit promoting regeneration and healthy soil as a viable solution for our wellness, water, and climate crisis. Since 2013, we’ve inspired millions to participate in the Regenerative Movement through storytelling, education and partnerships.”
Oh, and another benefit – when you put less poison in the form of hyper-processed foods into your body and recognize food ITSELF is healing, you’ll probably feel a lot better, too!
There is a movement of people who have started to be accidentally healed of various modern ailments through eating healthier foods, but we’ll talk about that another time.
Oh, and we can avert the climate crisis once this movement snowballs, too, without mentioning the term “climate change.”
The thing is (whisper):
God has a solution to EVERY problem we see in our world.
We have hope! Let’s dance! No problem is too big for our God.
As the song below plays, ask God, “Has my hope been reduced to the size of politics or the problems in my life and our world? Forgive me. Would You help me place my hope in the One who is bigger than every problem?”
“If . . . my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I’ll be there ready for you: I’ll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health. From now on I’m alert day and night to the prayers offered . . . “
Thanks for reading Restoring Life! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
She was a shell. She was skinny, sickly, and often lost in her little world.
Her stomach racked her in pain. Friends were elusive. She was unhappy, never having exploded in childhood giggles that should have been her right.
My husband and I oscillated between worry and confidence that she would grow out of “this.” One of us, either he or I, carried the ball of fear for this child. The ball never went away.
Occupational and physical therapists dribbled through our home – in and out – like a constant stream, reminding us that something wasn’t quite “right.” The ball of concern for our child, which we took turns carrying, grew heavier.
Doctors punctuated our lives.
An exclamation point with a specialist doctor in September. A question mark with that prominent city specialist who visited in April. The regular full stops of our home doctor, where “many” childhood milestones were missed, again, were a part of the regular background noise.
The cloud of “something” felt suffocating.
It was hard to breathe.
And doctors get so concerned nowadays. Our other daughter was told she “might” have a problem detectable only by modern medicine (pulmonary stenosis!), and yet that asymptomatic “problem” mysteriously resolved itself only a few years later.
“Would the same thing happen with this other daughter?” I wondered on the days when my husband carried our ball of worry.
And then it happened.
God’s voice was carried by the wind of the Spirit that day as I chatted with a friend about her struggling child.
“Try it.”
What now? I looked around, wondering if I had heard right. My heart sensed my Father’s love for me and my daughter as He spoke. Was I imagining things, though?
“Could you repeat that?” I asked
Nothing. Stillness. Quiet.
Had I heard correctly?
I had been learning that God speaks when we remember to attach our spiritual ears. I bent down to look for my spiritual ears which seemed to have fallen off again. Had He spoken?
At the moment that I wondered if God was nudging me, my good friend had been talking about a special diet – Yes, a special diet – that she was preparing for her son, who had developmental delays.
Diet?
But that’s not what the specialists EVER recommended!
But that was what was working for him. I felt God was asking me to try this same approach. Would I obey?
And so, how are we led on God’s specific, chosen path for our lives and families that usher in His healing?
That’s it.
And oh – our daughter was healed. But that’s a story for another time.
By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. . . . As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
An additional fun result of following Jesus where He leads is buried within the quote above if our eyes are open – Intimacy with God! Wow.
As the song below plays, ask Holy Spirit, “What is the ONE NEXT step, or person you want me to ask advice from, regarding this problem in my life that is literally burning a hole in my gut?”
God:
Thanks for reading Restoring Life! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
I was shocked when the notification blared its announcement.
I was in the top 3% of users of a new nutrition app I was using.
The TOP 3%.
Everyone else (or 97% of people – whatever! – stay with me!) had already given up.
Now, I have to back up a bit to explain.
As you know, and have been forever changed by, I wrote a riveting blog post series last fall on weight loss. (To my editor: Why DIDN’T anyone read those posts, anyway?)
I have been (more or less) within the healthy weight range (basically – okay!) for my entire life, which has been no small feat.
However, when following my advice failed me, I decided to switch it up and buy a nutrition app. Truthfully, I am constantly trying new approaches and programs and learning a bit more about implementing healthy habits, which is the point of this post. But I’m not talking about that right now.
I’m talking about the notification that startled me.
I thought I was the ultimate failure in using this nutrition app. Check this out. The photo below is an actual graph of my progress over two months, showing NO improvement in achieving my ideal weight.
None.
There are normal fluctuations, but the graph of this line is flat.
Same, same, samers.
I immediately unsubscribed to the “encouragement” texts accompanying this app because so many people complained in a way I could not comprehend.
“I only lost 5 pounds this month!” they would complain.
Huh?
I hadn’t lost anything, so I could not relate.
But I kept going with the program.
And the results EVENTUALLY paid off. EVENTUALLY. I lost 10 pounds recently and feel a lot better.
And I believe the results would have also paid off for many, many other app users.
If only they kept trying.
And now, we’ll switch gears to talk about God, but it’s not changing gears, because the concept is the same.
MOST PEOPLE GIVE UP TOO SOON IN THEIR SEARCH FOR GOD
Is it annoying people that keep you away from your search for God? Get over them! (Get over yourself too, but that’s for when you are MUCH more spiritually sanctified and you realize that you are a loser too!)
Is God distant, just out of reach? You’re on the right path. God hides Himself as a critical component of his character.
God delights in concealing things
Why, you ask?
He is not a dictator, shouting orders and wanting us to go off somewhere and obey every minute detail of his complicated directives. He longs to walk WITH us on this journey we call life. He wants us to WANT to want Him.
And so, right now, He is bending down low but right next to you. Will you reach out, tag his back, and say, “Gotcha!”
Will you seek Him?
If we don’t give up, even though most people do, and keep walking forward, following where we last saw his footsteps and carving out time in our busy day to sit with Him, unhurried, if we read his word, and ask others what it means even when we don’t understand it, then we will find God.
He’s waiting for you right now, holding out His hand to you.
And so, what is the one valuable ingredient to lose weight and find God?
Perseverance.
There’s more to come . . . keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.
Keep walking, friend.
Hunger for Jesus attracts the manifest (felt) presence of His Spirit. Does your hunger for God outweigh your discouragement? He’ll help you up, point you in a new direction, lighten the weight on your feet, help you soar.
Don’t give up just before your breakthrough, friend.
I wasn’t sure if I could keep the car on the road because I couldn’t see through my tears.
The downpour we were driving through didn’t help, either. “Keep it together. Keep it together. . .” was my mantra until I could get inside, close the door to the world, and let these emotions out.
I wasn’t sure I would be able to drive the car home.
Inside, I collapsed behind a closed door and told my husband the news. His sadness began deep, deep in his soul, in the place where love resides, and found its expression. It was the future we mourned.
A dark cloud had cast a shadow over the future of one of our children. Like a candle in the snow, her joyful little light was sensing wind on the horizon. And the odd pieces of cardboard I found nearby to try to shield her from the wind didn’t look like enough right now.
Heal her, God whispered to me months later.
I was minding my own business, letting my mind wander while in the hot tub.
“Um, what now?” I asked. I sat upright and perked up my ears. “What did you say?”
Silence.
I had heard him. Would I take the next step in faith? Or would I put cotton in my ears and dunk my head under the hot tub, ensuring I could not hear any more of this foolish talk?
They told me this was incurable. Everyone knew that! The best we could hope for was some moderate success with behaviour modification – a few small wins.
And so, which road should I take?
This is where we stumble.
Is that a jewel I just about stepped on along the path of life?
Will we pick it up, inspect it, hold it to the light and find a friend with a hammer to crack it open?
Or will we put it in our pocket to consider later if we remember?
The joys and the sorrows of life arrive, and we hang up our clothes at the end of the day. We forget them there for awhile. When we remember, through foggy memories, that there may be a jewel in our pocket (!), we look again, but it fell out. There are only the singed edges of our pocket to remind us that we were holding a bit of heaven for a while.
But it’s gone now.
What’s for lunch?
And God feels far away, again, even though He just descended from heaven to meet us. We treated His gift like just another stone on the path. Will we catch the next jewel He holds out to us? Will our eyes be open enough to see this time, or will we trample, again, the precious jewel that He offers, His firelight shining in the darkness?
It’s only a sparkle at first.
Time to bow low and fan the flame of His voice in your life, friend?
Come along. Let’s journey together.
Oh. And she was healed, God guiding and then redeeming my pathetic attempts to listen, Him re-directing me and helping me up when discouragement hit. For that is His way.
Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper.”
“All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said.
Jesus said, “Bring them here.” . . . The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand were fed.
The Message
We give Him what we have. It’s all we have but it’s not very much. We work with Him, following His direction so that the miracle can occur.
But that is a story for another time.
It’s also a repetitive story found here and here and in any heart willing to receive what He offers.
Ready for an adventure into the miraculous?
I looked around me but with a smile in my heart.
The kids were playing contentedly, cutting out shapes with scissors. Wait – was that my planning notes they were chopping into shreds? And were those my scissors they were using?
Well, you can’t have perfection.
They are playing independently!
It had been an excellent day, in a homeschooling kind of day. We had our usual ups and downs, but my head was still above water, and it was only 5:15 pm! The kids had learned some stuff today.
I felt like a raging success.
The tidal wave of to-do items had flooded us again, but we were still standing.
“I am a success!” I thought, satisfaction bursting open my heart. “A homeschooling success!” Today, I got up early, dressed to kill (that is, I got dressed), put on my lipstick, and taught my kids stuff with (mostly) a smile, only some of the times forced!
Our house was a disaster, yes, still, but we can’t expect perfection!
The Yeti of disorganized, disregarded homeschool supplies and clothes half the size of my children still yelled at me from the basement, but I couldn’t hear it today.
“It’s time for a well-deserved bath.” Time to paint my toenails (Wait – I never paint my toenails, but don’t you wish you were the kind of person who does, sometimes?). Time to put my feet up and relax. Well done!
And when my husband burst open the door that evening, home from work, I was excited to share my success with him.
“Look! Children playing contendedly!” I pointed out. “Look!” I shouted excitedly. “Feel their heads! Their brains are still warm!”
This was definite proof they had learned something under my tutelage. Kids CAN learn something from people who aren’t professional teachers! (In fact, homeschooling is easier if we aren’t professional teachers, but that is a discussion for next time.)
I was ready to pour us both a martini when . . .
One of the kids mentioned supper . . .
Do you know that noise that plays in the movies that sounds like a record player in reverse for about three seconds? That sound reverberated in my head. Right.
Supper.
I found a couple of limp carrots in the fridge’s bottom drawer, behind some rotting sauerkraut. Why don’t they stand up straight after being in the fridge for a long time? A handful of cabbage, brown spots along one edge. One egg.
Noooo!
I am happy that this situation described above only affected me once (My editor wrote 1,000 times because she insists on truth. Spoils sport!) Eventually, I learned a lesson that saved my ability to homeschool:
After morning coffee, and yes, while I am still in a housecoat and slippers, and as soon as the brain switches on, I take a look in the fridge before I understand the first words of needy children.
Anything there we can eat today?
And if not, grocery shopping is our first homeschooling field trip. We weigh vegetables using those fancy hanging scales in the produce section for our math! Our reading lesson is held in Aisle 4 as the kids try to find a word they recognize on the soup can: tertiary butylhydroquinone, anyone?
We take our lemons and we make lemonade again.
Yes! I have a plan for supper! You?
And we pat ourselves on the back because, just like our kids, we learn and grow as we homeschool, too. We have our priorities in the proper order. Our energy and sanity are limited resources, and we chose well today!
Feeding their little bodies well is MORE important than feeding their little minds.
Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
Albert Einstein
Yes, we may have to start afresh with our planning pages after our kids cut them into shreds to make bunny litter since we forgot to buy more, but we ARE making progress today!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
I threw away the diet books in a fit of frustration.
I failed.
Again.
HOW is it possible that EVERY time I start to diet, I GAIN weight?
True story.
I don’t even lose weight for a while and THEN gain weight.
My body pushes the pedal to the floor, green light ahead, and helps me put on the pounds without meandering through the territory of “thinner me” first.
“Thanks a lot”, I thought. My body is too smart for me. I had to find another angle.
HOW can I win this battle of the bulge with a body that bulges whenever I FOCUS on my food, I wondered?
I was focusing on the wrong thing.
That’s when I learned about “identity.”
“Identity” and related terms were some of the most frequently Googled words in 2023. Yet I think it’s safe to say that few of us clearly understand what EXACTLY identity IS or HOW it applies to ME.
IDENTITY was the smoking gun that allowed me to keep wrestling (granted, I am still in the ring) with the battle of the bulge in my own life.
Here’s the secret. Lean in close.
Is no one looking? Ok . . . (shh… what will it take for us to BELIEVE ourselves that we are the KIND OF PERSON WHO IS FIT?).
Then we do that – end of discussion.
I’ll explain to you the FORM of what exactly this looks like in my own life. Then, if you’re still interested, I can explain WHY this works.
I will first discuss a CAR (the FORM) and then an ENGINE (the WHY) to convert the above paragraph to an analogy.
The CAR I drive is reliable and gets me where I need to go. These are the actions I take to stay fit. The ENGINE of the car, the fire and the pistons that make the wheels go around are found in digging into beliefs about identity.
In the analogy above, I drive a 20-year-old Toyota. In real life, this is the car my Grandpa gave me when he could no longer drive. He scratched and bashed this car from headlights to tail lights from failing vision and judgment, but it was a VERY reliable car because he didn’t have far to go each day.
This Toyota is kind of like me. I care that I can get from here to there and reliably do my errands. My goal, as much as I can control, is to be fit enough to have a reliable body that gets me where I need to go.
Being a healthy weight is not about image but about avoiding pain associated with obesity, if possible, in other words.
So how do we do that?
I focus on what I must do to TRICK MYSELF INTO BELIEVING I AM A FIT PERSON.
Sometimes I do a Triathlon. Sometimes, I complete P90X, and related challenging workout programs. Once, I bought equipment and lessons to learn to skate ski.
I did THE KIND OF THINGS THAT FIT PEOPLE do.
I pretended to be someone else, in other words.
And then I thought, “Fit people eat green smoothies in the morning, so BECAUSE I AM A FIT PERSON, I will do that too.”
And so now we’re talking about the engine of the car.
I naturally ate MORE OFTEN like a fit person because I BELIEVED that I was a fit person.
It was all about identity.
Something else about identity?
Jesus cared a lot about identity.
We have a record of six times that Jesus asked something along the lines of, “Who do (the people/ the crowds/ you) say I am?“
Identity is the A-Z of what drives your car in life.
What we believe about the identity of Jesus is the steering wheel in the car He is riding.
What we believe about His identity determines whether the car of God is coming toward us, bearing the overwhelming love of the Spirit and all of the inheritance that adoption by a King offers. Or whether we are hitchhiking and miss the car of God again.
‘May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.’
C. S. Lewis – Letters to Malcolm
God, help us to see ourselves using the glasses You use to look at us. And may we, by Your Spirit, grow into Your best vision for us and for our lives, we pray.
Restoring Life 