Push Ups

In a country where we expect things to happen 'now' instead of waiting patiently, I am often discouraged if I don't see personal change over night. Being somewhat on the heavy side, I look in the mirror and remember the days when I was in a great physical shape. I remember being able to run three miles and not be out of breath. I remember not getting tired walking up stairs. But aside from expensive surgery, getting back in shape is something that is going to take me awhile to regain.

Then I started to think rationally. If I just lose one pound a month, I would be 12 pounds lighter by next January. If I did the unthinkable and lost two pounds a month, I would be a remarkable 24 pounds less by next January. Most weight gimmicks promise losing 10 pounds in a month. That aint going to happen here boys and girls.

So therefore, I have decided that in my life, I am going to stop trying to eat the whole elephant at once and start taking one bite at a time. I decided eight days ago to start doing pushups. I could hardly do 20. And they weren't pretty! I was discouraged because I used to be able to do a lot. But keeping with my 'one bite at a time' scheme, I decided to just add 1 push up a day. Last night I did 28 pushups! Look out Arnold! Also, I started running. When I run, I don't get discouraged if I have to walk or stop and rest or fall on the ground and puke; I just think to myself, 'at least I'm exercising.' It will pay off.

Anyhow, imagine if we did the same thing with reading or devotional time or praying. If I spent 5 minutes in scripture every day (which sounds pathetic on the Christian scale) I would ready 30 hours a year. That's like over a day! Sounds dumb, but I bet that is more than many of us read or pray every year outside of church and Sunday school. Imagine if we worked on one struggle of our life a year. There are only so many sins that we deal with. In time we could be almost perfect :). In 10 year we could have bettered ourselves in 10 different ways.

Will you mosey through life with me?