Keep the Ball Rolling

I went to exercise class the other day and the teacher had us use those giant balls as part of our workout. I was on a roll. But it was definitely NOT a good roll. I could tell I was getting on the nerves of the gal next to me about the third or fourth time I all but mowed the poor thing over.

The giant ball thingy had a mind of its own. It seemed determined to escape my grasp. Or maybe the ball was trying to start a fight. Not only did it keep getting away from me, but I think I heard it snickering that third time it smacked the lady exercising beside me. It got her right upside her cute little head band. I was a little worried that if this giant ball didn’t beat the tar out of me, cute sweat-band-girl would.

We were supposed to lie on the ball, belly-down with our palms on the floor in front, then work our way out so that just our legs were balancing on the ball. I would get about to the thighs and then have to scramble and sprint after my ball. I don’t know what everyone got so upset about. It’s not like I was TRYING to bowl all their water bottles over. Isn’t that what the caps are for?

The instructor said something interesting during one of my scrambles. She said that when our body’s core is strong, we have good balance. Let’s face it, my inner core is pretty pathetic. There are muscles in there, I’m sure, but they’re so buried under all those layers of doughnuts and cheesy nachos that I’m doubting I’ll ever find them.

I want it to be different in the spiritual heart of who I am. I want to be strong at the core of everything that makes me tick. When life seems all out of balance and I’m rolling this way and that, the first thing I need to ask myself is, “how’s my core?”

What is it that makes a solid spiritual core? It’s a life lived in surrender and obedience. Galatians 5:22-23 in The Message says, “But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard--things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”

Hmmm, “direct our energies wisely,” eh? Maybe a strong physical core and a strong spiritual core are more related than I think. I’ll keep up the exercise in both—“keep the ball rolling,” as it were. And maybe I can get to a place where I walk into the exercise class without everyone grabbing their water bottles.

The Sweet Life at Bread Co.

I’ve written most of my last couple of books at Panera/St. Louis Bread Co./Atlanta Bread Co....whichever. Pick a name. I’d complain about the fact that the place has too many names, but I’m just too tickled with the free wifi and the way good sandwiches. And the coffee. Oh baby, the coffee. I think I can usually finish one full chapter per strong cup. It’s strong enough coffee that the chapters are all one sentence and they don’t have any punctuation, but still.

Anyway, I do a lot of writing there. This week I walked in, sniffed, and said to myself, “Mmm, smells like a book deadline in here.” I shared that with a writer friend and he said he figured I must go to a different Panera than he does. He said the one he goes to smells like procrastination. Yeah, been there, smelled that.

It’s easy to get pulled in to that smell of procrastination. Why do today what you can put off until someone bugs you about it?

But when it comes to spiritual disciplines, those we just don’t want to put off. Can’t put off obedience. Delayed obedience is really just plain ol’ disobedience. And that leads to a purposeless, fruitless, lackluster life. No amount of even the strongest coffee can perk it up.

So I’m shooting for staying tuned in to God’s word and following Christ wholeheartedly. Anybody smell that? Smells like the sweet life.

Microwave Stalactites

I opened the door to the microwave to reheat my coffee a few mornings ago, then realized I just didn’t want to put it in there. Ew. Before the coffee was going in, somebody was going to have to clean out that microwave. It looked like someone had a tiny little ticker tape parade. So much food-confetti, so little space. Worst of all, there were a couple of spaghetti sauce stalactites in there. I like my coffee with lots of sweetener and plenty of creamer. But call me picky, I like it completely without spaghetti sauce drippings.

And speaking of “picky,” I thought I might actually need a pickaxe to get to the root of some of those stalactites. Do they make a microwave cleaner that has dynamite as its main component?

Life can be a little like my microwave. Anytime I’m wondering why it doesn’t taste as sweet, I really have to look at what I might be hanging onto, stalactite-style. Hanging onto self-centeredness, bitterness, laziness--any of those kinds of things--will zap the deliciousness right out of life.

First Peter 2:1-2 gives us a big, ugly list and then tells us that making God’s Word a central part of our lives can help us get rid of everything ugly that might be hanging around in there. “So be done with every trace of wickedness, depravity, malignity and all deceit and insincerity, pretense, hypocrisy and grudges, envy, jealousy and slander and evil speaking of every kind. Like newborn babies you should crave, thirst for, earnestly desire, the pure, unadulterated spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto completed salvation” (AMP).

Before I can grab onto what the Lord wants me to do, and the satisfaction and joy that comes with fruitfulness, I have to let go of sin and selfishness and hang on tight to the instruction of his word.

So I’m determining to let go of everything stalactite-ish today. Even if it does take a stick or two of dynamite.

You Think You've Had Bad Hair Days?

Have you ever had one of those weird hair mornings? You wake up (at least half-way) and scratch your rib cage as you stagger toward your bedroom door. But before you reach the door, you inadvertently catch a glimpse of something extremely disturbing. It’s the mirror—and in it you find some strange-looking person who could not possibly be you. No, you would never let your hair look like that.

You begin the thought, “There’s not enough hair gel in this hemisphere...” but then just sigh to yourself and think, “Oh well, symmetry isn’t everything.”

As disturbing as an asymmetrical hair day might be, Samson’s by far topped them all in the 16th chapter of Judges. But it wasn’t Samson’s haircut that made it a bad hair day. The “no haircut rule” was part of the vow he made to God. There was no muscle in Samson’s hair. It was his special dedication to the Lord that had given him strength. And it was his disobedience that zapped it. He had lost his devotion to God. As a matter of fact, he had traded it. He was more devoted to Delilah than he was to his God.

Samson’s lack of devotion to God and his choice to sin blinded him to spiritual things. Verse 20 has to be one of the saddest statements ever recorded: “But he did not know that the LORD had left him.”

Anytime we let our devotion to the Father slip away, we find our lives off-balance, asymmetrical—weak and disconnected from spiritual things. Staying committed to the Lord results in a life of real and lasting strength. And his strength is bigger than our biggest weakness. Though Samson suffered huge moral failure, he is still listed among the faithful in Hebrews 11:32-33. The passage speaks of one “whose weakness was turned to strength.” Only the strength of God can do that. And he deserves our wholehearted devotion with every spiritual muscle!

Hair muscle doesn’t count.