The Gym (aka A House of Worship)

I've been training for a Triathlon that's coming up next Saturday in the bay area. Because of this training I bought something that I never thought about buying before...a gym membership.
The gym is an interesting place, filled with interesting people...

You have the Muscle Heads, these are the guys wearing Tap Out drinking no-explode who spend more time looking in the mirror holding the weights then actually lifting them.
You have the Business man with a impressively large stomach that is solid like a cannon ball, watching CNN on screen 7. Sweating profusely on the treadmill.
You have the young determined post college girl going 90 miles an hour on the elliptical machine her ipod screaming Kelly Clarkson into her ear drums.

I find myself watching these people more then actually training for the triathlon that is lingering just around the corner. And it hit me the other day...The gym is a house of worship.

I began to hear it all around me, people are worshiping. Loud. Whether it is there own body or self image, or whether it is there husband or wife that there breaking there back to try and keep a figure that will in turn keep there spouses affection alive and well. Worshipers. Filling the house of worship called Evolutions in Tulare.

It then hit me, what am I worshiping? I sat in the back yard last night looking at the stars and asking myself, What is the object I am glorying in most? What has the most wait in my life? What am I sacrificing for? The answers that came were scary and exciting. The truth is we were all made to worship. We will worship something. Food, Self Satisfaction, Money, Power, Husbands, Wives, Kids, Sports...we will give glory to something in this life.

I’m unsatisfied with giving glory to myself, I fear rejection so I pour everything I have into making you like me, making people around me like me, Ill go to any length to make this happen. And I am unsatisfied with it.

Tozer once wrote that it all starts with a "hunger", I hear my stomach growling for more than food, affection and satisfaction in popularity. The pains of needing a true savior are kicking in. And I'm loving were it's leading.

Isaiah 40:3-5

'Listen it's the voice of someone shouting.
Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!
Fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves and smooth out the rough places.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken.'

Myself and I

I made the comment today... "I need to be better at blogging."

I made the comment to myself, so myself answered. "Why?"

"Good question myself."

"What if you just got better at loving people?", said I.

"That's a ridiculous question!" Myself snapped.

"IS IT?"

Myself shuffled in the seat and replied, "Don't over spiritualize this."

"What does that even mean?" I quickly rebutted.

Silence filled the car. The tension began to melt between Myself and I. Finally Myself swallowed enough pride to say, "What if I just got better at loving people..."

I Smiled.

the end. (or is it?)

Meet the Guatemala Team...

bumblebee

go to lemoore to see bumblebee!
41 north to fargo ave flip a U and see the gloriousness!

monday night blues

carlin wanted his hair black so we made it black...as well as a smiley face on his chest that is burned into his left pectoral now. happy monday night to you!

Changes...

"There's one sure thing, nothing stays the same." "Change is inevitable."

I've heard these words spoken multiple times in my short life. And unfortunately I believe them most of the time. I have placed trust in those words. That nothing is stable, nothing is sure, nothing is sound. And it's easy to believe when it looks like everything is changing. I've rented more tux's in the last few years of my life then I planned on and been to more weddings then I can remember. And I’m getting ready for several more this year. One in particular, my friend Chris. This is a bit different because I not only have a great friendship with Chris, but I also live in Chris's house. He is getting married in October, and let me pause to say I am thrilled for this new chapter in his life His fiancé Kathleen is amazingly wonderful and Chris is going to be a fantastic husband and father someday, it just means that I will be packing up my stuff in cardboard box's soon. It's kind of fun the adventure of change, but also a bit overwhelming at times. And the phrases of "nothing stays the same" ring true in times like this. Or if you loose a job or break it off with a girlfriend. And I start to believe that Nothing stays the same, until I hear Jesus say, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." Hebrews 13:8

That's the kingdom I belong to. one that does not change. One that is completely different then what this world does or says or believes. It's just like Jesus to turn our logic upside down to reveal his glory.

so I may move a dozen more times before I finally go home, but it doesn't matter because i'm only visiting the land that changes daily for a short time, but my residency is in a kingdom that has not changed, does not change and will not change.