Lifting and the Trap of a Busy Schedule

Okay, so since I've been lifting, I've discovered that my busy schedule is the number one reason for me to miss a work out.  Whether it's a trip to New York on family matters, a volleyball match to officiate, pre-marital counseling to be conducted, a meeting with another pastor, schedule is the number one reason I miss workouts. I don't miss workouts because I'm bored with it. I don't miss workouts because I'm sore.  I don't miss workouts because I think they are ineffective. I don't miss workouts because I don't like lifting. Usually if I miss a workout it's because of my schedule. That is such a big lesson to me.  You see if I miss a workout which brings benefits to my life it's usually because of my schedule. I don't miss studying the word because I find it boring I don't miss praying because praying is hard work I don't miss basking in his presence in devotion and worship because I find it worthless. I don't miss journaling because it has become passé in my life. Usually if I miss these things it's because of my schedule. That is such a big lesson to me.  You see if I miss one of my personal disciplines that shapes my life, it's usually because of my schedule.   Schedule.    Leaders know mastering it is essential, without it, the important things that should define us easily get pushed out.  Schedule well.   the man in the window

Lifting and the Loss of Gains

Last March I made a decision to add a regular weight lifting regimen to my schedule. I knew it would take some doing to develop the habit (I had last lifted regularly in High School), and I knew that I would have to work through some significant pains to get into a routine (what was left of my chest I now displayed around my waist), so I petitioned a friend with a regular lifting addiction habit to take me on as a lifting partner.

 

Over the weeks and month I began to truly enjoy our workout times together. In an ideal week we rotate through workouts on back, chest and arms recording meticulously in our journals how heavy and how many skull crushers, overhead pulls, tricep pulls, alternating bi's, etc. we do. The journal serves as a de facto accountability log. It's a record of our time in his man cave, grunting and lifting, growling and sweating, encouraging and challenging each other.

 

If you were to look in our logs at the period of late July through mid-September you would see a significant slacking off in our workouts. Vacations, his mission trip to El Salvador, mine to Africa, the battle to overcome a persistent parasite that lingered long after the return to American soil, District Conference, volleyball officiating, counseling, meetings all took a toll. But in mid-September the workouts returned. But we paid a price for the loss of discipline. In every category, in every exercise, we lost ground. I was actually a little surprised by how much had been lost so quickly.

 

It hurt to lift less weight than we had before. This was both a physical and Psychological hurt. Muscles that had not been worked hard in weeks ached as we got back in the routine. But there was also the emotional hurt of realizing we went backwards. A part of lifting is going heavier or at least maintaining where you've been. It is never good to go backwards.

 

One evening as we were lifting, I told my workout partner, (who happens to read man in the window) that the Holy Spirit was speaking, teaching me as I lifted. I was having one of those leadership moments as we lifted.

 

Leaders know and develop habits and practices that define them as leaders, those habits make them strong, they keep them strong. Some of my habits include the time in his presence in the mornings, the reading of books that challenge my thinking, meeting with men who speak into my life, cultivating prayer that believes God for great things. Strength in those disciplines has been gained slowly over time. Lifting was reminding me of a huge truth.

 

When we stop the disciplines that define us, we lose ground, not just a little, we lose ground surprisingly fast. So we can either keep the disciplines or pay the price.

 

Leaders know we are defined by the disciplines we keep.

 

Thanks T. for lifting with me. Thank you Holy Spirit for teaching me even when I'm slinging iron.

 

the man in the window

 

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

-- To follow Jesus is to learn to move with God.

Changed - Iron Man

Like many movie fans, I have enjoyed Hollywood's recent offerings based on the superheroes of my childhood comic books. Spiderman, Batman, X Men, Green Lantern, Thor, the Fantastic Four have all been recent offerings. Just a few years ago Tony Stark came to life as Iron Man.

 

This morning in devotional reading I realized that just maybe the apostle Paul was familiar with Iron Man, or at least his story. A man dies and is raised to new life, with a new character, and equipped and armored in a way that makes him indestructible.

 

Tony Stark was the billionaire playboy heir to the giant Stark weapons manufacturing company. While observing the effects of his experimental technologies on the American war effort in the Middle East, he's injured by a booby trap. Stark's situation is dire and his injuries critical as shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart, keeping him alive. Having been captured by the enemy, who then orders him to design weapons, Stark and his prison mate use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor which Stark uses to escape. But Tony Stark is transformed by the experience, including the self-sacrificing death of the prisoner who saved his life. Replacing the temporary power source keeping him alive with an ever renewing source, Tony Stark develops and dons the Iron Man armor, discovering a new passion, a new mission.

Changed, he becomes an unstoppable force against the powers of evil in the world.

 

Okay, so I was reading Colossians and I saw a similar story.

It's us. Listen.

 

He who died and in one blow forever disarmed the evil rulers and powers of the world (Col 2:15), set us free from them and their dominion (Col 2:20). Now raised to new life with Christ (Col 3:1) we discover real life (Col 3:4). A real life that brings with it a continually renewed new nature (Col 3:10). We the rescued, the ones freed from the rule of the kingdom of darkness now find ourselves in the kingdom of the Son. Brought into the very presence of God, holy and blameless, we stand (Col 1:22). Called to put on a new armor, for we are destined to join the fight against the evil rulers and authorities of the world (Eph 6:12).

 

Changed-an unstoppable force against the powers of evil in the world.

 

I confess I seldom see myself that way, but I think Paul did. Should we?

 

the man in the window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

-- To follow Jesus is to learn to move with God.

Is It Clear?

It's the morning after perhaps the most challenging District Conference I ever attended. I was sitting in the coffee house writing down some of the blessings and challenges resonating with my heart. Following a quick trip down the hall to the restroom, I returned to discover one of my elders had stopped in to see me. As we greeted each other he stated the following, "I knew you were back in town and I knew I could find you here." I've written before about being defined by our habits, and as leaders that is always a good lesson to remember. But this morning, being remembered for my faithfulness to be at a coffee house in the mornings was sobering for me.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad people recognize that I begin most days at a coffee house and that they can drop by to find me, but I was wondering, do they know why I'm here? Was the habit I had developed testifying to the value of what was being pursued? I start the days at a coffee house to get some alone time with myself and God, to read, to pray, to journal, to contemplate, and to drink some good coffee while I do it. Is it clear that my time at the coffee shop is all about my intimacy with God or do people merely think I'm a coffee hound?

 

It got me thinking-are the habits that define me defining me in the right way? Are my priorities communicating the right things? Can people see what my life is truly committed to?

 

Then I really started thinking.

• Is it clear that I'm committed to intimacy with God?
• Is it clear that I'm committed to reaching my neighbors?
• Is it clear that I'm dependent upon prayer?
• Is it clear that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?
• Is it clear that I walk in victory over sin?
• Is it clear that I am becoming more like Christ?
• Is it clear that I rejoice with others who rejoice and weep with those who weep?
• Is it clear that His glory is more important than mine?

Oh dear God! Is it clear?

 

The words of Peter whisper through my mind this morning

 

1 Peter 2:12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. NLT

 

Oh dear God, let it be clear.

 

 

The Man in the Window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

-- To follow Jesus is to learn to move with God.