And then P90X killed me

Back in my school days, and especially back in my soccer playing days, I considered myself to be in fairly good shape. In high school, Mark Lamberth made damn sure of it. Sometimes the conditioning that we would go through in preparation for the season looking eerily similar to this

with your friends one by one falling at your side. The wonderful grass on the field at White House High School was proudly sowed by the members of the 1998 White House High School soccer team stamping it into the ground while running gassers (current members of the team, you're welcome).

I was reminded by a friend recently that we would run cone sprints for upwards of 20 minutes straight and then, after a 30 second water break, would be expected to (as a TEAM) run a 2:10 1/3 mile. If you're a runner, you know that's not that tough. If you've already run cone sprints until your struggling for breath, it's BRUTAL. And if any one of us didn't make it, we got time for a breather and then had to make it (as a TEAM) in 2:20. I swear, at times, in my light-headed, nauseated, sweaty state, I could see Coach Lamberth turning red, growing horns and a bifurcated tail, and carrying a trident.

After suffering through that regimen through high school and being expected to keep healthy and fit throughout my years of playing organized sport, I guess that I decided I was done caring for a while. And then came college. I ate unhealthy food and the only recognizable exercise I got was walking this:

It took me half a semester in jogging class to manage to run two miles without stopping. Sad. And then I got it back and was running 2 miles in 12 minutes for my final. And I was proud....and happy....and feeling pretty good about myself.

And then I stopped giving a big fat crap again. This time for about...ohhhhh.....5 years. And then I started dating and married my wife who decided that it was this real big freakin' awesome idea that we care about ourselves and eat healthy. Since then I have gone through a bit of an awakening. I have eliminated most of my fast food consumption and replaced it with fruits, vegetables, wheat pasta, and Coke...Zero. I take my sandwich wrap, salad, and Greek yogurt to work instead of grabbing a burger or gyro at work.

I was proud....and happy.....and feeling pretty good about myself. But NOOOOOO! Then Sara has to start running........and running.......and running some freakin' more. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of her (she's about to log her 100th mile running), and to be honest her dedication to fitness is extremely sexy, but man it was starting to make me feel like a lazy oaf.

But then I sat back and started asking myself why I couldn't get up and do it. Why I couldn't find the motivation to try to get into shape. It was at the time that Evan and I finished detailing her car and walked into the house that the exercise demon attacked. Its name is P90X. Sara was getting into the workout and suddenly I found myself grabbing a resistance band and joining in the fray. And holy crap it almost killed me. My abs are on fire and tomorrow I will be sore in spots that I didn't even know I had muscles. That was just arms, shoulders, and abs. Sara showed me that there's a whole freakin' volume library of DVDs to go!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In looking back, I guess Mark Lamberth did me a great service. He tried to kill me getting me in shape but pushed me when I wanted to give up. He showed me I could do it. That was when I had a teenage metabolism. The more impressive feat is what my wife has done for me in my post-teen I don't give a rat's ass time. McDonald's burgers and laying on couches replaced by turkey burgers and doing crunches. She is wonderful; she makes my life great but on top of that insists upon me living it better and more fully.

Tomorrow will be day 2 with P90X and I'm excited about it. And now I'm proud......and happy......and feeling pretty good about myself.

But make no mistake. I'm still convinced that P90X will kill me.

Christian Rebuttals

Judgmental.

Hypocritical.

Antiquated.

Three words that a non-believer quickly springs for when attempting to dissolve any effort to witness to them. Rational gripes. The simple truth is going around spreading the Gospel is not as easy as smacking someone with a Bible until they agree with you; running around shouting “Praise Jesus!” until they do the same or listing out a person’s sins for them until they agree they need forgiveness. Telling a person the many reasons they are going to hell won’t get you far either. No, you’re going to meet resistance. Lots of it. What do you do about it?

How about addressing each gripe? Maybe we can better witness our faith to those that don’t have it, don’t want it, or see no value in it.

But first allow me to say something that may possibly piss someone off (sorry by the way). If you go around using your faith as a weapon against non-believers, use it to explain to them why you’re right and they’re wrong, if you wave a banner of righteousness and cast a critical eye on those who need witnessing because you believe in God and they don’t, if you have arrogance that bleeds through, you have failed to witness to those that need it, you have failed your fellow man, and you have failed to properly represent your God.

And that’s why I say the judgmental gripe is a rational one. Because we as Christians sometimes flat out stink at this one. Don’t let your pride foolishly get in the way. You’re human, you poop, you put your pants on the same as they do, you once didn’t have God’s salvation, and you screw up too

Read Matthew 7:1 – “Judge not, lest thee be judged.” Period. That’s it. End of conversation.

Rule #1. No judging. Ever. God’s way better than you and me; only He gets to do that.

Second on the list is the hypocrisy beef. And another shocker alert; some people are going to think that I’m mental for saying this, but I would agree with the premise that we’re kind of hypocritical. Hypocrisy is defined in Webster as “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own practice or behavior does not conform; pretense.” We all try very hard to be more like Christ.

And then we fail. Sometimes miserably. We go to church and hear an incredible message, have a Wednesday night meeting that really touches our heart, go on a mission trip that really opens our eyes, and then we get out of the setting and big dumb stupid do the opposite. We know we must be humble before the Lord but then let our pride get in the way. We know we must serve our God but then we also serve money as a master. We know we should pray and then we don’t make time to. We become selfish instead of selfless. We try to take what we can instead of giving until we can’t. We. Screw. Up.

And Christ is amazing, because he forgives and forgives when we don’t deserve it. “Claim to have moral standards to which one’s behavior does not conform.” Yep. That about sums it up for me. If we’re to be truly honest, that’s a defining characteristic of Christianity. That’s why we needed Christ. Because we are not hypocrites but we certainly have hypocritical tendencies. Because we do fall short. Because we don’t always practice what we preach. Because we don’t always do what we say we’ll do. We don’t always listen when God speaks.

Rule #2. Try to be more like Christ. Try not to be hypocritical. And confess and ask forgiveness when you are. And don’t let your pride get in the way. It’s ok that people see that you are human, that you aren’t perfect, and that you acknowledge that you need forgiveness.

Lastly is the outdated stigma. “The Bible was written for sheepherders who lived without electricity and indoor plumbing thousands of years ago. It doesn’t apply to me; I have Twitter! Moses couldn’t Google. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey; I drive a Subaru. I mean, having good moral principle is a good thing and all, but I just don’t see how you people lean so heavily and place so much faith in an archaic book written thousands of years ago by people who don’t understand your problems and don’t live in the world we live in today. It’s outdated. It’s out of touch. It just doesn’t apply to these times.”

You’ve heard this. Or some variation of this.

As for this one…well, I’ll use that outdated book and prove just how “in the now” it is.

I bet I can find a few verses to apply to today. Heck, I bet I can do it on a daily basis for a good long stretch.

Challenge accepted.

And one blog entry begat another.

To be continued…..