I'm an addict

Hello my name is Chris, and I'm addicted to ice cream.  Rocky Road is my favorite, but let's face it if your an addict any flavor will do.

Several months ago I blogged about my sweet tooth, and my battle to lose weight.  Here is my update: it's not gotten any better.... frustrating.  I run 15-20 miles a week, but yet the weight not only is not coming off, but is gaining.... albeit only two pounds, but still.

Temptation is a battle.  I face the battle everyday of the temptation of ice cream, chocolate, or anything sweet.  If I could just say "no" I could be so much healthier and leaner than what I am.

That's the way temptation works, it's almost as if you cant say no...

^13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.  (1 Co 10:13., NIV)

 

The problem is:  I can say no, I just choose not to.  I can go to the store and not buy any, I just choose to anyway.  I can stay away from the ice cream parlor, I just choose not to.  There is ALWAYS a way out of temptation.  No one holds me down and forces Ice Cream in my mouth, No one forces me to pick up a container and purchase, and no one holds me hostage and makes me go to the parlor.  I just choose to.

 

So it is with life.  Temptation is always there, always present, and always pulling you and I in.  It draws us in.  Looks so good.

 

I have no will power when it comes to sweets.  I keep saying to myself that I can stop, I know I can, I can feel deep within me that I can.  Then there is this little voice that says "oh come on how can something that tastes this good really be bad for you".  Doctors have told me back off sweets, my children tell me back off sugar, heck I even tell me to back off.... and yet I don't.

 

Temptation:  the battle is real, I CAN say no, just wished I would......

 

Hello, my name is Chris and I'm addicted to Ice Cream and Rocky Road is my favorite

Run for God

I have always maintained that my jog/run time is a lot of my quiet time with God.  I spend a lot of time praying and have gotten many of my best ideas and sermons while running.  I normally have either my "Jeremy Camp" or "Lecrae" iheart station playing, but today I felt led to do something different.

As most people I have the Bilble AP on my phone, so today I listened to my Bible while I ran.  I was Leary at the beginning because I normally use the beat of the music to help me set my pace.  Today I ended up not worrying about pace, time, or distance.  Today was just about me jogging and listening.  

I was so amazed today, it was as if God spoke to me the whole time.  I jogged six miles and listened to the gospel of Mark and part of Luke.  This may very well become a new habit of mine.  I am able to get away from everything and just listen and take it all in.  We all know that is hard to do.  Get away, find a way, because it is very worth it.

Today I felt not only that I was running for God, but that I was running with God.

Have a great weekend

Chris

I found a feather

I found a feather..... I know what your thinking (either AND? or SO...).

In my devotion book I am reading right now this week was focusing on slowing down and enjoying creation and life.  This book is geared to runners so I am enjoying it.  It concentrated this week on focusing so much on finishing the race faster or better, that you forget to enjoy the actual time running and you lose the joy of the run.  Life can be that way.

Running gives me the chance to see the world from a different point of view.  I enjoy running new places, changing the route, and pounding the pavement.  You see things that you normally wouldn't see while riding in a car.  I run trails, streets, sidewalks, and neighborhoods.  I get to see flowing rivers, trickling streams, woods, city streets, sand, mulch, animals, and people.  I run when its 90 degrees or when its 10 degrees.  I have run in the sun, rain, and snow.  I have run with a partner but most of the time I run alone.  Sometimes I run with tunes and sometimes I don't.  There is so much to take in while on a run.  I gave up a long time ago on speeding up my time,  trying to speed up my time took joy from my run, it made it feel like work.  Now I just jog.  Some days I run 3 miles some days I run 7.  Depends on how I feel.  I feel accomplished when I run because I don't compare myself to other runners.  I run races, but I do it for fun cause I know I won't win and I am perfectly ok with that.

Yesterday on my run I was in the grass beside the road, cause I had run out of sidewalk, I had a visual point ahead that I was determined to get to before I turned around and headed back (the new ingles on Sand Hill Road).  I was so focused on that "turn around point" that I passed by what had seemed to be a large feather in the grass.  It caught my eye but not enough to get it.  The further I went past it, the more I thought "I should have stopped and gotten that, my kids would have loved it".  Ok, lets be honest, I would have loved it, lol.  So I get to my turn around point and begin the jog back.  All the while I am scanning the grass looking for it, my heart sinks because I don't see it.  I began to think, man I missed it.... I cant believe it.  Up ahead I catch a glimpse as a tractor trailer passes me and the wind off of it makes this feather flutter a little.  At last, I found it!  I stopped and picked it up, and admired it in the sunlight.  There was something about this feather that seemed to me the most beautiful one I had ever seen (I didn't initially know what bird it came from, but have since learned it was a turkey).  I carried it with me for the next mile as I finished this run.  Showed it to my kids yesterday afternoon, just as I thought they loved it.  Amazing they said, beautiful they said, awesome dad they said.

Yes, it is still just a turkey feather.  However, that turkey feather is pinned to the sun visor in my car to remind me to slow down and enjoy this journey and the beauty of this life.

Because:

^14 [a]Yet you do not know ^[b]what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 4:14, NASB).

Take some advise from me, enjoy this life you have because you only get little moments once....

Chris