Weight on the Lord

Last Sunday, the Capital Stewardship Campaign leaders — well, actually, just one of them, Rhonda. Her husband was out-of-town — spoke about how they came to be the leaders of the campaign.

Originally, they were resistant to it. They were fairly new to our church, and felt the existing building and surrounding parking were adequate. The church leaders, without knowing their feelings in the matter, selected them to be the Campaign leaders.

Rhonda shared how her next thought was, “Great, Lord! I see what you are doing. You’ve placed us in a position of leadership so we can steer these people in the right direction, and away from this Capital campaign.” She concluded this part of her story with, “But what we found out is sometimes God places you someplace not for what you can do to change things, but for what things can do to change you.”

Good message. Something I need reminded of.

This evening, in our Ash Wednesday service, I was thinking of what to give up for Lent. I have not given this Lent much thought — not that my mind has not been on spiritual matters, but this particular season? This ritual? No. Not very high on my advance radar.

But important nonetheless, and I made sure there was time carved out to attend the service.

So I was thinking and I was praying. I settled on giving up food from 9:00am to 6:00pm. This allowed me some leaway in that I could still drink a variety of liquids, including nutritional beverages if I felt it necessary, as well as the all-vital caffeine. But it was still very significant, in that I am a carnivore, and I crave meat!

So I prayed about this:

“Lord, I’ve settled on skipping a meal between 9 and 6, a nine hour fast. I want to do this to show you my love and committment for you, and I want very much to have the benefit (physically, diet-wise) of fasting each day. But Lord, what I want most of all… what I most want to want, is for what You want to show me, and for You to have the benefit of the fast each day. This will be my challenge Lord.

That you have brought me here not for what I can show you, what I can do for you, but for what you want to do and show through me.”

I later received a mark of ashes, as is Lenten tradition.

Then I went to the gym to work out.

I moved 18,000 pounds this evening. And I did it in just at 40 minutes. Both of these are significant improvements, and are really in the range for what I want as a benchmark. I want to be able to complete the circuit in 40 minutes per session, plus 10 minutes of aerobic walking, so I can get in and out in under an hour (if I skip the spa).

The weight, well… I expect I am now working in my optimal weight range, which means the weight will go up much more slowly from this point. However, I do know that I still need to increase my leg loads somewhat — they are still underworked.

I noticed a few members gave me substantial smiles this evening. I’m thinking I’m being recognized now as a “regular”.

Then I remembered… I’ve got this ASH SMUDGE on my forehead. I noticed there was no one else at the gym with the mark. That was disapointing, as there were usually several at the YW.

I don’t know what to make of that.