Monday, November 21, 2011

Checked by God

So it has been a little while since my last post and its funny because sometimes I am full of things to write about and share and then other times its as if I never had a blog. I never want to force a post just to have content, it has to come to me, and it did.....



















So last weekend while having lunch with my parents my dad recommended that I go and get a physical to check out everything, particularly my heart. He has no reason to recommend that other than the fact that I have been running and training at a high level. Of course, I did not take it serious and pretty much ignored the doctor's order. Sure enough, a friend sent me an article about a young man that died recently while running a half marathon in San Antonio, the very next day. Of course, this hit me hard and so I scheduled an appointment and went in for a visit. During my visit the doctor noted high blood pressure and some potential abnormalities with my heart that could mean time away from running.

As you could imagine, I was immediately so frustrated that something could potentially be taken away from that I love so very much; running! I did not care about my health all I could think about was the fact that I may not be able to run and train like I love to do. How could it be? I have never felt better in my life or been in better shape. I was finally getting the results I wanted and could see my hard work paying off. I had a goal and how could something like this come in between me and that goal? Of course I was in denial and blamed it on a bad diagnosis.

But as I thought about this more and more it finally started to hit me. What I realized is that I have put my fitness in front of God. I train so hard, eat perfectly, never miss a work out but I wasn't doing the same in my relationship with Him. In fact, my fitness and training has become a false idol and has pulled me away from God without me even realizing it. I definitely forget to pray, to read the bible, to keep God on my mind but yet I can maintain incredible discipline with my fitness. It never crossed my mind that a seemingly positive thing could pull me away and be a negative. But yes, fitness of all things has pulled me away from my walk with God. The bible makes it very clear that we are to have no false idols. It does not say that we can have false idols if they are "good" for us.

"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."~ Exodus 20:3-6

God Himself has checked me yet again. Our God is a jealous God and wants us near Him always. He is a God that has reached down and grabbed me in the midst of me straying. If I really believe in God that means that I believe that He is in total control. That means that I accept whatever He throws at me because it is all for His great purpose.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould and with all your strength and with all your mind"~Luke 10:27

#thatswhatsup
-EC

3 comments:

  1. Good Post-remember 1 timothy 4:8-For bodily training is beneficial for a little, but godly devotion is beneficial for all things, as it holds promise of the life now and that which is to come.

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  2. wow! Great verse, thank you for reading and sharing

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  3. So true Eric! I just stumbled upon your blog and it was so inspiring. I just needed that today...God is always our refuge and all we need to do is trust in him fully, really fully. That's called faith. I respect you for holding up for God in this hard to live in world. It takes a strong person to live a life that God has planned for us. He does not want a wimpy life and you seem to have it going on.
    Stay strong Eric.
    Bess Cook

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