Posts Tagged: exercise

“Invincible Summer”

On December 1, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”  (Albert Camus)

This was the epigraph that led off one of my 12-step readings this morning.  I am profoundly grateful to Hazelden Publishing for these readings.  They help make me saner—or, at least, a little less crazy.

I have been prone to depression for nearly sixty years.  It started just before Christmas when I was nine years old.  I didn’t even know what to call it then.  I have since come to know the grey monster only too well.

Especially in winter, it is a problem.  Some forty years ago, my wife noticed, one dreary February day, that I was more prone to depression in the winter.  In her usual constructive manner, she said, “You need to get some exercise.  Perhaps that would help.”

“It’s 270!” I replied.  I thought that would cool her jets.  It didn’t.  She’s pesky like that.

“Why don’t we go play golf?” she continued.  “You’ve been wanting to teach me how to play.”

“It’s 270!” I said again, as if she hadn’t heard the first time.

“We’ll bundle up,” she said.

Knowing my wife’s persistence (and being too depressed to resist much of anything), we bundled up, got someone to watch our kids, threw my clubs in our refrigerated car, and headed for the golf course.

After five holes of icy golf, I was feeling much colder, but a lot less depressed.  “I think I’m feeling better,” I said, through chattering teeth.  And then, I added, “You really did well for this being your first golf outing ever.”

“I would have done even better if I had had left-handed clubs,” she replied.  I am a righty, and my wife is a lefty.  She really did do well!

I have a lot to be depressed about right now.  No need to go into all the details.  It would make me even more depressed if I did.  It probably wouldn’t do a lot to lift your spirits either.

But now, along comes Camus, who is not known for his optimism, with this quote: “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

Invincible summer!  Now there’s an incantation with which to conjure.  I can certainly remember summer, even in winter.  And I can play summer songs on You Tube.  I can probably even create a “summer channel” on AccuRadio.

And maybe, just maybe, I can come to enjoy winter more, too.

After a long, grey, wintry spell, the day is dawning cold, but bright and clear.  Today, I will choose joy.  Today, I will choose to be invincible summer.

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“Overwhelmed”

On July 26, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

We all feel overwhelmed at times.  Even good things, things we enjoy and feel passionate about, can inundate us with fear and frustration.  No one is exempt from being overwhelmed.  For example, here is my journal entry for this morning:

Friday, July 26, 2019

So, why have I not been posting more blogs, you ask?  Partly, because I have been getting more chances to teach.  And while I love teaching biblical subjects, I am more than a little overwhelmed right now.  (Can you be a little overwhelmed?)

Here is what I am facing right now.  I had done a lot of work on a couple of courses for the fall semester, which is coming up in a hurry.  A few days ago, I was asked to switch out those two courses for two others.  I thought to myself, well, I need to be flexible.  I’m an adjunct.  Okay, I’ll do it.  Then, I discovered that one class has sixty-one students in it, and the other has twenty-one.  I’ve never taught a class bigger than about thirty.  So, I need to choose textbooks and get the syllabi together for these two classes, and I have very little time in which to do it.

Additionally, I am currently teaching one undergraduate class, and preparing to teach two masters level classes in a little over a week.  These two masters level courses are hybrid classes, which means that I will be meeting with students in person for a very intensive week in early August.  One class goes from 8:00 to noon, and the other from 1:00 to 5:00, five days of that week.

So, I have too much to do and too little time to get it done.  I need to work on both sides of the equation—the too much to do, and the too little time.  I can do two fundamental things.

First, I need to keep doing things that energize me and keep me on the right path.  Therefore, I need to continue to exercise and to work at recovery from this addiction.  If I “free up more time” by means of refusing to work on bodily health and recovery wisdom, I am walking in neither wisdom nor freedom.

Second, I need to cut back radically on what I “need” to do.  Do I really need to do this?  That is a question I need to ask myself many times in the course of the day.  And I need to follow up with another question: What do I really need to be doing right now?

Right now, a bird is singing outside my window right now, anticipating the dawn.  It is a call to worship for Matins, the Morning Song Service for the worship of God.  This song is also part of the healthy rhythms of my life.  And so is this blog post.

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“COURAGE IN LITTLE THINGS”

On October 3, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success1 wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:6-9)

The posts these days seem to be preoccupied with little things these days.  That may be because I often feel little to the point of insignificance.  Probably we all, even the most “successful” (whatever that means), feel that way a good bit of the time.

So, I was thinking about courage in little things this morning.  I have never thought of myself as being particularly courageous, but maybe I’m ignoring courage in little things.  Today, I sent my sponsor the following affirmation:

“Today, by God’s grace, I am living courageously in small things.  If big courage is called for, I pray that I will meet the challenge.  However, courage in little things will certainly be called for.”

I am not sure what “courage in little things” even means.  Maybe that will unfold as the day goes on.  Perhaps I will need to be on the lookout for chances to exercise courage.

I do know this much: All muscles—whether physical, emotional, mental or spiritual—are developed with exercise.

In the Scripture that led off this post, Joshua is being told that he is to lead the children of Israel into the promised land, a huge task.  Worse yet, the former CEO of the company was Moses.  How would you like to follow that act?!  Did you notice that, in that brief quote, Joshua was repeatedly told to be courageous?  Why so much repetition?  I suspect there are two possible explanations for God saying the same thing over and over.  Either God was being very emphatic, or Joshua wasn’t listening real well.  Perhaps both are true.

When I was growing up on the farm, I kept waiting to develop big, bulging, impressive muscles in my arms.  It never happened.  No matter how much I worked, my muscles never impressed me.  I threw bales of hay up on the wagon by adrenaline and determination, more than by muscles.

But the fact is that I did develop some muscles, even though it might not seem so.  Little by little, I was firming up my muscles.

I’ve never felt very courageous.  Perhaps I don’t need to feel courageous at all.  But if I exercise in little ways, I am where I need to be, and doing what I need to do.

One final thought: Joshua 1:6 comes right after Joshua 1:5.  It’s strange how that works!  And in Joshua 1:5, God promises that he will be with Joshua, just as God was with Moses.  Our dog is much more brave when my wife and/or I are with her.  Being courageous with the God of the universe is a whole lot easier than being courageous without God.

 

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GETTING RID OF THE MID-WINTER GRUMPIES

On January 14, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

 

I woke up grumpy this morning.  (I will spare you the ancient joke about the woman who said, “Sometimes I wake up Grumpy, and sometimes, I just let him sleep.”  . . .  Oops!)

Why?

Is it really so important for me to understand the why of things?  I doubt it.  But here goes anyway:

  • It is a grey, cold, icy day.
  • I’m not feeling well physically.
  • I’m worried about our financial condition.
  • I haven’t been sleeping well for the past several weeks.
  • We are going to a new computer order entry system at the restaurant where I work, and I am not sure that I can learn it.

But here is the bottom line: None of these “whys” are particularly wise or helpful.  They are not reasons.  They are excuses.  The truth is that I am crabby because I am choosing to be crabby today.

So, what am I going to do about this?

I’ve already done a few things.

  • I’ve made a gratitude list of 50 items.  (Perhaps I should go back and review it.)
  • I’ve read some Scriptures.  (Perhaps I could read, out loud, some praiseful passages.)
  • I already ate breakfast.
  • I can listen to some good, uplifting Christian music.  (Okay, so I just turned on K-Love radio.)
  • I can get some exercise later today.
  • I can do some fun stuff.  (Writing blogs is sometimes fun.)
  • I can get some significant work done.  (Writing blogs is work.  Significant?  Well, I hope that it is!)

There is one more thing I can do.  Oswald Chambers writes somewhere that “moods don’t go by praying; moods go by kicking!”  Yes!

So, that is my attempt to help myself (and you, gentle reader) with my (your) mid-winter grumpies.  Perhaps these things might work during any season of the year.

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“PUNCTUALITY, PATIENCE, AND PRACTICE”

On January 2, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

KJV  James 1:4:   “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

Sometimes I get exercise, even in areas that don’t relate to any part of my physical anatomy.

Take today at Planet Fitness as an example.

My wife and I went there to work out.  Silver Sneakers is a wonderful program, in large part because it is free.

I had told my sweetheart that I was going to do a longer workout today, and perhaps she should take her Kindle or a book.  “Are you going to go anywhere?” I asked.  “No,” she replied.

However, as she finished her own workout, she asked if it would be okay for her to run over to Wal-Mart.  “Sure,” I said.  However, she decided to go to Kroger’s to pick up some groceries as well.  So, I waited.

And waited . . .,

And WAITED!

Okay, so I didn’t really wait that long.  Perhaps it was half-an-hour.  However, since waiting time often seems longer than real time, it probably wasn’t even that long.

But here is the amazing thing: I really didn’t get terribly upset.

That might not be amazing for a normal human being, but I am not usually a normal human being.  I can’t tell you the number of times (but it was a lot) that I have gotten furious about these kinds of things in the past.  I said harsh, hurtful things that I later regretted.  I’ve wasted hours pouting, making both my sweetheart and me unhappy.  When the kids were little, they also had to witness my multiple temper tantrums.  What an absolute jackass I was!

So, while I was glad for my response this time, this little incident helped me to acknowledge how wrong I had been in the past.  I asked my sweetheart’s forgiveness, and she graciously gave it.

Another thing: As I reflected on this little non-drama, I realized that I was actually continuing my exercise program.  I was exercising patience as I waited for my wife to pick me up.  Virtues are gifts from God.  They are, however, gifts which need to be unwrapped and exercised for them to be able to grow and do their job.

The real issue wasn’t punctuality at all.  The real issue was patience.  Today, I bench-pressed a few pounds, but it’s a beginning.  Tomorrow, perhaps I’ll be able to bench a bit more.  Opportunities for patience abound.  I just have to make good use of them.

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