Muscle

A few weeks ago, I started posting about Fourfold Fitness [see intro], which is a tool that helps me focus my intentions.

It might seem like an obvious statement to say that physical strength [see table] is integral to a healthy life. I’ve noticed a couple of disturbing abilities in myself, however; one is taking for granted the strength I have, and the other is adapting to my incremental loss of strength. In other words, I don’t tend to think very much about developing or even maintaining physical strength. And as various muscles atrophy, I just work around my reduced capacity.

I’m committed to altering that trajectory; its eventual destination is not where I choose to go. My skeletal frame needs support and connectivity. I need muscle in order to do what I’d like to do without damaging myself. So I’m slowly building resistance training into my routine.

There are many other things I’d rather do, so it’s important for me to remember the big picture of my life. I have to consciously consider what my “ten-years-from-now self” would say to me; that a decade of small choices directed toward good habits (practices) will profoundly effect my future quality of life.

Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

Choices, part 5 [Joshua ch.5]

No more manna, no more free bread from heaven
The time comes to live off the fruit of the promise
The time comes to grow up and take responsibility
For finding sustenance within God’s call
Within God’s challenge, within his dare...

[Note: Chapter 5 also contains indisputable proof that the men of Israel trusted Joshua at a visceral level. There can be no doubt in the minds of men who choose to follow a leader who says, "Okay guys, today is the day when we all get circumcised." That takes real conviction! Wow...]

Choices, part 4 [Joshua ch.4]

The burden of blessing... I wonder if that is part of the point of the twelve stones taken from the riverbed. There seems to be a certain weight of responsibility that comes with divine favor.

Of course, the stones also provided material evidence of what God had done. When the people woke up the next morning, no doubt feeling disoriented by grace, the stones might have helped ground them in their new reality.

Choices, part 3 [Joshua ch.3]

The third chapter of Joshua is about the people of Israel crossing the Jordan River (while it was at flood stage, no less!). There are quite a few fun subtleties woven into the story that are easy to miss because they tend to be hidden in the shadow of the gargantuan centerpiece-miracle.

Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, because tomorrow the Lord will perform miracles among you.” (Chapter 3, verse 5)

I think of purifying myself as tuning a guitar. Like, if I were told that B.B. King was on his way over to my house to jam, I would make sure my guitars were in tune. God is at work: get ready.

Here’s a weird thing: Joshua refers to miracles, plural. How many happened? Or was the crossing of the river so mammoth that it was in fact a composite of a plethora of miracles? Maybe a new miracle was needed each time another Israelite stepped off the bank onto the riverbed.

There might be another miracle imbedded in the story: the nation became ready to place their trust in Joshua. They had been holding it in escrow, as it were, since they’d lost Moses. Now they would be faced with the choice of whether or not they would invest that level of honor in their new leader.

Being willing to follow a flesh-and-blood person who says, “C’mon! Let’s go this way -- God is doing something great over there” requires a lot of faith. And it’s worth pointing out that it also requires a long history of seeing that person’s character revealed in a variety of situations.

Choices, part 2 [Joshua ch.2]

The inaugural post of this blog included the word “Choices” in the title, and yet I never actually referred to choices directly. The idea is there, peeping through from between the lines, but perhaps it’s only fair to make the notion slightly more visible.

A life of faith presupposes choices. A person is asked to choose to believe God enough to be willing to make an unfolding sequence of secondary choices; for instance, choosing courage over fear, choosing to prepare for divine interruptions that seem highly unlikely, and choosing to step into a flow of events that will require God’s miraculous touch to turn out right.

“The Lord your God is God in heaven above and here on earth.” Joshua 2:11b

The God of the Bible is forever dissolving our distinctions between the eternal and the temporal, between spirit and dirt. The choice to believe God’s nearness constellates all other choices.