His Temple

Even though it would be hard to notice from looking at me, I’ve spent a lot of time working out and exercising during my few years on this Earth. My reason for working out has changed more times than I can count, from wanting to impress a girl to not wanting to be an American obesity statistic, from not wanting to be the little guy anymore to just loving the feeling of becoming stronger.

This past year I went off to college for the first time and was thrilled to find that the university had a gym that I could use whenever I wanted. My first action was to go to the gym and sign up for a personal training session. The session was fantastic and made me sore in places that I didn’t know existed. It got me started on a workout routine that would have me building muscle quickly and it worked. During that first semester I gained 15 pounds of muscle making a huge difference for a guy coming into college at 120 lbs. That was the Fall semester.

The Spring semester I came back after a month break from college and from working out and had lost 10 lbs. over the break, all muscle. That was a hard hit and apparently hard enough to knock me off going to the gym completely. During the spring, I quickly found myself buried in studying and laziness so I started gaining weight but it wasn’t muscle this time. As the weeks and months went by, I would occasionally look in the mirror and the body that looked back at me only made me increasingly angry and bummed out. All that work in the Fall gone down the drain and now I just didn’t see the point in working for it again. At least, that was until I found the defining reason of why I should keep a healthy body.

 This body is not my own. The God Almighty gave this body to me but it’s only a loaner. This body is only temporary because one day God will take this loaner back and grant me something much greater. With that said, that doesn’t mean I should defile this great gift that God’s given to me. The Holy Spirit is with us all in our hearts and that means our bodies are temples, His temples. I want to keep His temple as pristine as possible which means I’m going to workout, I’m going to exercise, and I’m going to try to eat healthier (that last one will be the hard one for me). I want to always look upon this beautiful treasure that God’s allowed me to borrow and love what he’s given me. Loving my self-image can only help to boost my confidence, bring me closer to God (made in his image), and help me to love those around me.

P.S. We are also God’s tools on Earth so it couldn’t hurt to make sure His tools are always ready to work in body, mind, and soul.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them.” Genesis 1: 27-28 

Waiting

This is a very simple concept and yet it is one that governs the majority of our time and thought. As I sit, alone in a hotel room, waiting for the first step on the long road of my career to start, I wonder about all the waiting I have experienced and have yet to experience. I've waited to get to high school, to get to college, to get a driver's license, for my first car (and second and third car), for my first date, my first kiss, for my first job, and my first paycheck. All of these are just a handful of what I've already waited for and yet I still have many things to wait for, like waiting to graduating college, waiting for the one to spend my life with, waiting for the job that kicks off my career, and waiting to see my first child's smiling face. 

We all have a tendency to know about at least one of these things or of many other events or objects that we are waiting to happen or to receive because we are infuriatingly impatient. We want everything to happen the second we decide that we want it and yet life does not work that way. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones is not only a fantastic song because of its perfect harmony of instruments and voices but more importantly, because of how true it's title really is. We can't and usually don't get all that we want and yet many times we can get the things we need through some (or a lot of) effort and trusting in the Lord (because he will provide). 

I've spent so much time waiting for things to happen and working my tail off to make them happen and usually its all come to no avail. I would and still do occasionally become furious inside when I work so hard to get the one thing that I want and it still lies outside my reach. It hasn't been till this past year that I finally realized why I always feel like I'm waiting for something and why I can never seem to have enough. It's simply because before I never had or wanted God and its impossible to fill the void that God leaves inside of you when you don't have him. 

Now I see that God is having to experience the ultimate amount of waiting, since He's been waiting since the beginning of time to finally have all of his children together again. I no longer need to fill my time waiting for the next big event or big buy, but instead just need to love and cherish the life I've been given and bask in the experiences that come my way. If I trust in the Lord and give it all up to him, than I know happiness will come to me. I know this because I've already begun to stop waiting, and happiness has found its way to my life. 

"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26 

The Beginning

Recently, I met a group of girls that go by many different names but whom I call The Nannies. These girls were quite kind to me even if they didn't always smile and they enlightened me on what a woman after God's own heart actually looks like. A few of the Nannies happened to also have blogs which I found intriguing so I couldn't help but check them out. I then found myself so entranced by their thoughts that I actually read the entirety of their blogs and found myself realizing that I would like to make a blog, at least to be able to see my many thoughts in writing (or typing) for once. This is the beginning of those many thoughts and maybe some tidbits about my life. 


First off, I miss my friends. I got out of school only a couple of weeks ago and yet I already miss my college friends and the people I met at RUF Summer Conference (get to that momentarily) more than I could have imagined. My desire for finals to be over completely masked the fact that I wasn't going to see these people for four months, which is far too long in my opinion. My only conciliation is that I'll spend the majority of those four months covered in dirt and oil, hoping that the money I make will be enough to keep me from not working during the school year. 


Secondly, since the first thing was a thought, this'll be a tidbit. I went to RUF Summer Conference and LOVED IT! Now I actually know the vast majority of my fellow RUFers and they're all fantastic people. During the conference, I got to grow closer to God through large group, my amazing small group, classes, and devotionals on the beach, while also growing closer to my favorite people. SuCo was a good eye-opener into who I want to be in relation to God as well as who God wants me to be and how God has been waiting since the beginning of time to see us all standing beside him, that is an amazing love. God is the perfect Father.