My 2009 Story

My pastor invited the church to reflect and tell their story for 2009; share what God has done in our life through the past year. Here's mine:

As many of you know I committed to changing my physical lifestyle. The process of getting fit began in late June. I finally decided to change the way I eat and get off my butt and exercise at least 30 minutes every day. I really don't care to get into details of my fitness routine or what I eat. What I want to share is the role God played in getting this ball rolling and how He helps me through it every day.

Every morning I get on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes. That may not seem like much but there are mornings that I would rather not get on the thing. Just the same I force myself to. The interesting thing is that like many people, I too need a distraction like watching the news or something while working out. It makes the 30-minutes go by faster. Interestingly what I often do is drift into meditation spiritually and before I realize it I'm communicating with God. I often use that time for prayer as well, sometimes drifting into prayer without even knowing it. I know-it sounds crazy but it is what it is. What's interesting is that my time grueling it out passes in rather large chunks when I'm reflecting on the matters of God or talking to Him. I'm convinced His hand is in this and I choose to believe He makes my challenge less effort.

I committed from the start to do this thing with God's help alone. People often ask me why I don't join a health club or join Weight Watchers? Those are both great options but for me...no. It was my choice to do this with God's help. I've said it before and I'll say it again that God is not my last resort but my "First-Responder." I asked myself "what would my faith be if I can't trust God to see me through?" I was asked similarly why, a few years back I didn't use a patch or take pills or get hypnotized to rid myself of nicotine addiction? The same thing here-what would it say about my faith if I didn't trust God to see me through it?

My story for 2009 and what God did is summed up in that He revealed to me that I can trust Him with everything. That sounds odd doesn't it? How can Jeff, a believer, ever NOT trust God? The only way I can answer that is to put the question back the other direction and then you might understand. Let's say you have this huge problem. For the sake of argument lets say it is an addiction. Instead of making excuses about why you shouldnt deal with it once and for all, why not call on God to help you and see you through it? Do you TRUELY believe He can see you through it? Do you trust Him with the big stuff? Do you fear He will let you down? Do you fear that if He can't help you with that, He can't help you with anything? Aahh its not so easy is it...to give that to God because its a biggie isnt it? For some time I struggled pulling the trigger myself on some things and calling on God-why? Was it because I was afraid I would fail and let Him down? Not for me. I was afraid to call on Him because if I failed, I feared what that would reveal about my faith or my trust in Him. For me it wasn't easy to ask Him for things because I more often than not-didn't feel worthy to ask Him for anything. What I believe these days though is that whether it's spending 30-minutes with Him on the elliptical or walking with Him in the woods "don't fear" are the words I hear the most so if He says "step out of the boat" and I'm surrounded by water...well then I step out. How about you?