Deflated

We continued with our "Get Pumped" worship series yesterday. The first service was challenged to get on "Jacob's Ladder" to grow in spiritual maturity. Of course there was a play on words. The hymn "We Are Climbing Jacobs Ladder" was used along side the exercise equipment (aka torture device) given the name Jacob's Ladder.

In the second service we were blessed by the presence of Colemun Ricker, my fit coach at The Rush. We did a short interview before the message. He shared about his passion and love for training and helping others. We looked at how he works to help others reach their objectives, which includes lots of encouragement, but sometimes requires challenges and corrections. We related this to what Paul was sharing with the Corinthians. Colemun also shared what a fantastic student I was, and about my agility and quickness (he may not have used those exact words, but I'm sure that was the gist of it).

In both services we looked at how Paul knew the Corinthians had huge potential, but had gotten off the track. They had not matured and were stuck on "milk". Milk is good because we need to start with the basics before we move on to solid food. Yet, sometimes we need coaches and teachers to help us make the move -- to grow in our maturity. We need encouragement. We need challenges that we would not normally put in front of ourselves. Sometime we need a shove to get out of our comfort zone. And, ff we're doing things the wrong way we need correction.

The challenge was to Get Pumped! Find the area in our lives where we need to keep on maturing. Maybe it is getting more fit so that God can use us as God's temple (This coming weeks topic). Maybe it is getting more fit in our spiritual life so that God can use us as God's Co-worker, God's field, God's building (1 Corinthians 3:1-9)

BIT: So, if the worship theme is "Get Pumped!", why the title "Deflated" for this entry? Well, my goal for this week is to have lost another 3 pounds. This would put me at the 30 pound mark! One of the things that has made me nervous as I have been losing this weight is the possibility of having excess skin when all is said and done. So far it's not a problem. I am doing it the right way. Good nutritious food, portion control, and exercise. But, I've watched the "Biggest Loser" enough to know that sometimes ... well they can turn out looking like a deflated balloon. I'm hoping that is not the case. But, nonetheless, I did some online research ... which is always dangerous.

There were several suggestions. Lose the weight slowly. Exfoliate (how in the world do you exfoliate your entire body, please don't let me know). And then came the holy grail of suggestions ... soak in sea salt at least twice a week. I love to soak! I love salt (even though I have done away with it for this weight loss)! So, I looked online to find how I could get sea salt. I found I could get genuine Dead Sea Salt! Isn't that like Holy Salt? So I ordered some. Being the frugal person that I am, I saw that I could get free shipping if I ordered 20 pounds of Holy Dead Sea Salt ... so I did. Unfortunately my better half saw the salt when it arrived. I don't know if you know how much salt is in 20 pounds ... it's a lot of salt.

BITTER: Needless to say, I believe the entire faculty at Karn's High School now knows the story of Giny's crazy husband's sea salt adventure. That she has a barrel of Holy Dead Sea Salt sitting beside her tub. That's okay. I can look at that barrel of salt in the bathroom and say to myself, "Self (I call myself Self, while God calls me Dude), you've lost more weight than that barrel of salt! I think next time I'll order 40 pounds so I can look at that for a while! Get Pumped! My Friends!