Author: Chrisy

What are You Waiting for?

You have been wanting to eat better, and every Monday you say you will, but then when you mess up you wait until the next Monday to try again.

You have been wanting to exercise, and every Monday you say you will, but when you sleep in instead, you wait until the next Monday to vow to get up and work out.

It is a vicious cycle.

What is it about January and Monday that make us think those are the only days that we can make a change?

In Anne of Green Gables, Anne and Miss Stacy talk about the fact that every day is fresh with no mistakes in it (yet). The same is true of every minute. So you ate half of a pizza for dinner. You can start fresh NOW. You don’t have to let yourself eat a large Blizzard just because you ate too much dinner. So you overslept this morning. That doesn’t mean the couch has to swallow you this evening.

I read this last week and it has been sitting on my desk in post-it note form since then:

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You will never start eating well if you don’t change your mindset and actually start eating well – and start over the minute after you are less than perfect.

You will never start exercising if you don’t make a decision to change your lifestyle – and keep moving – even when you were a bump on a log all day.

I am not perfect. I try to maintain a vegan diet, but cheese is of the devil and it calls to me. And sometimes I listen. But then I pick myself up, dust myself off, and jump back on the path that I have chosen for myself. I try to exercise regularly, but schedules, sleep, and a bum knee recently, sometimes throw me off. But I have to make myself get up and start over again the next day – or even that evening.

It is hard. But it is a choice.

Have you seen this floating around on Facebook and Pinterest lately?

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It’s true. You are free to choose, but you have to live with the consequences (or joys) of your choice.

What are you waiting for? Choose health today!

I am starting a Test Challenge Group for a new Beachbody workout that is now available, PiYo, in July. This new workout is low impact and combines the best of Pilates and Yoga. The Test Group will be a virtual group where we hold one another accountable while using the new workout. If you want to join my test group (available to anyone in any location), simply visit my website, order the PiYo workout DVD, and let me know. I will add you to the group. Let’s get fit together!

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On the Move

A torn meniscus = two months of inactivity.

Surgery to repair a torn meniscus = an additional 3 weeks of inactivity.

Nearly thee months of inactivity = flab, extra weight, and the overwhelming desire to RUN! (I have even been dreaming about it again.)

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been given the go-ahead from the surgeon to walk and bike. (I can also use the elliptical and swim, but these are not activities that I love.) The knee is not ready to run (I tried to run a few steps this week, and, no.)

But activity > inactivity, so walking and biking it is.

And oh, how glorious it is!

I have walked regularly the last couple of weeks. I have done ab workouts and upper body dumbbell workouts. I have ridden my bike to work and to the pool on multiple occasions.

And the knee is doing ok keeping up with me.

But I forgot about one thing.

Pain.

Yes, that is right, my muscles are SORE! That’s what a couple of months of not working out will do to you. You have to start over again.

And yet, even though I am sore, I am happy. It is a good sore. It is pain not from injury, but from exercise. And I love it.

Over the last few years (9 or so I believe), I have been on a wellness journey. I have gone from never walking to constantly running. I have gone from never having run farther than a mile to completing 39.3 miles in two days. I have gone from eating whatever I want to cutting out sugar, meat, dairy, and eggs. I have gone from completely uneducated about food and fitness to researching and reading about how I should be fueling my body.

I have learned much and just like I want to help people on their spiritual journeys, I have been wanting to find a way to help people on their physical journeys as well. (And in case you didn’t know, the two really do go together!)

And now I have found it. I am now a Beachbody Coach and I am ready and willing to help you achieve your fitness goals. Whether you are looking to lose weight, get in shape, learn about how food affects your body, find a quality protein shake to fuel your body, or find the right workout for you, I am here to help! If you have never heard of Beachbody, it is a company that is committed to helping you transform your body through fitness and nutrition.

What can I do to help you achieve your goals? Visit my website, or contact me today!

Discipline Needed

I have been a bad blogger lately.

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say. I have been reading lots of things and mulling over even more and have plenty to share.

I just haven’t made myself sit down and write.

I have written sermons and lessons, just not blogs.

I have been bad at caring for my health lately.

It’s not that I haven’t wanted to eat well and exercise.

I just haven’t made myself get out of bed and walk (instead of run, which is what I want to do, but the knee isn’t ready), and I just haven’t made myself get up off the couch (or porch swing) and cook.

I have been a bad housekeeper lately.

It’s not that I don’t want my house clean and in order, I just haven’t made it a regular part of my week.

I have been doing little things like riding bikes with the kids, working in my yard, eating fresh fruits and veggies, and cleaning up when I get fed up with clutter, just not in the disciplined manner I typically do.

I can’t explain it, but for some reason my normally disciplined life has shifted to more of a free-flow for the last few weeks. And there is nothing wrong with that. For a short period of time. The problem is I need discipline. I need to write regularly. I need to exercise and eat well. I need my house to be in order. When these things are out of whack, then my whole life feels out of whack. And that isn’t a feeling that I enjoy.

So I am looking forward to this week. The kids are finally out of school and we can get back to their regular chore lists that somewhere around March went out the window. I am working some new summer hours so I can work at home and be with the kids more. This means I can carve out some writing time, can plan meals better, and can keep up with the house a bit more (especially since the kids will be doing their part).

Here’s to adding some discipline back into my life!

How does your life flow better – with discipline or not?

Walking in Faith

Do you have faith?

I mean real faith. Faith that makes you take action.

I believe in a God who heals. Sometimes He does it supernaturally, and other times He uses other people.

I believe that God is going to heal my knee, and I believe that He used the hands of the surgeon that performed surgery last Thursday to begin that process.

Do you know how much faith I have in my God?

Enough that I purchased these shoes just days before my surgery. They are my “faith” shoes, because I believe my knee will get better and I will be wearing heels again soon.

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Enough that I registered for the 500 Festival Half-Marathon next May. The one I wasn’t able to complete just a couple of weeks ago because of my knee. I believe my knee will get better and I will be running again soon.

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Sometimes just having faith isn’t enough. We have to act in ways that show our faith is active. We have to do things that show we truly do believe in a God who is able to do much more than we can ask or imagine.

We have to actually walk in faith, not just say we believe.

How are you walking in faith today?

Why Me?

So I read this blog post this morning, and next thing I know I am submitting an entry to win a trip to Rwanda. This is what I wrote for my submission. I have been telling you that lately I have been totally wrecked by what I am reading – both in the Bible and books – and here is just another sign that the Lord is doing something in me, because I have always been scared to go overseas for something like this. Now I am asking you to vote for me to win this trip – vote often – so I can move forward in the process.

Why me? Why did I get picked as the one to lose my job? Why do we struggle financially? Why has life dealt us the cards it has?

And yet we have more than we need. We have food overflowing our pantry, refrigerator, and freezers. We have more clothing than we can wear. We have more electronics than we should. My Bible study group and I just rid our homes of over 2,000 items. And we could easily do it again.

There are people in this world so much worse off than us, and yet we have the audacity to ask, “why me?”

All over the world are widows with no way to support themselves; children with no food and no access to clean water; young girls forced into prostitution and slavery to “survive.”

And we sit here in our homes that we consider too small, filled with stuff that we think isn’t enough, crying because we don’t have the latest technology in our hands.

Something is wrong with this picture.

And I have had enough. I want people to see that we are not just getting by, but are among the super-wealthy when compared with the world. I want people to see that we have to stop looking at our first-world problems and start helping the people with real problems. We have to start paying attention to what we buy and how it affects other people. We have to start doing something, not just ignoring what is right in front of our faces.

Because we have the power to change the world.

Being from a small rural community, we get by thinking that the tragedies of the world are too far removed from us. We don’t see it daily, so we can pretend it doesn’t exist, or that we couldn’t do anything to change it anyway.

But I want to change that thinking. And going to Rwanda on this trip would be a good place to start. Because when someone you know sees it first hand, you start listening.

Living Life for God

I try to live my life in such a way that whatever I do points to God and brings Him glory. I don’t need recognition for it, I just want to be a Daughter of the King who points to the King instead of to myself.

Sometimes in the midst of life, God gives us a special treat by letting us see how much the way we live our lives has impacted others.

Today, I got one of those special treats.

One of my favorite princesses, Brittney, a senior at Greenville College, introduced me before I spoke in chapel this morning. I am so proud of this girl! She is loving on kids, following a call of God to be a minister of His Gospel, and stepping out in faith as she starts the next chapter of her life.

And these are the amazingly kind words she had to say today.

If I have learned anything over my past four years here, I have learned that community is important. While this word is thrown around this campus, about as often as #iheartIvan or #iheartGC, it has a different meaning for everyone that steps foot on this campus.

We all know that community is important, and we are doing our best to harbor true community here on campus. While we are doing just that, we are a sub-community inside of a larger community.

Greenville, Illinois is filled with some of the most loving, kind-hearted, Christ-focused people, who are all committed to doing good, seeking Christ, and loving on us college kids.

Over the past four years, I have been able to be a part of some of the most incredible families. I have worked with some of the most Christ-focused kids, sat around dinner tables with families who are invested in the lives of college kids, and worshipped alongside some of the most spiritually mature people.

Chrisy Ennen has been one of those people who has taken me in as her own and allowed me to be a part of her family. With two loving kids, Anne and Ty, and a husband, Mike, Chrisy has been nothing but loving and encouraging towards me.

From deep theological talks, to geeking out over our new princess crowns, Chrisy has allowed me to live life with her and her family the past few years.

With a heart as beautiful as campus in springtime, and a life that is devoted to bringing the Kingdom of God here, she has a calling to serve, love, and invest in those who are around here.

She’s a spiritual developer, a graduate of Greenville College, and a Kingdom worker. Please join me in welcoming my fellow princess, Chrisy Ennen.

Thank you, Brittney, for your kind words that give me a glimpse that I am living my life for God in such a way that it is impacting others!

Fighting the Selfish Voice

Have you noticed the cultural norm of, “it’s all about me” that pervades every single aspect of our lives? And how often do you see the attitude of entitlement in children and adults all over the place?

Do you ever feel yourself falling into that way of thinking and feeling about yourself?

I know I do.

And it is hard to find my way back out if I don’t stop it immediately.

When I start to hear the selfish, “it’s all about me” voice playing in my head there are a few things that are my “go-to” ways to fight that voice.

  • Send texts to a few people I know who may need a word of encouragement.
  • Write a note and drop it in the mail to a friend.
  • Work on a knit or crochet project for someone who is having a particularly rough time and pray over them as I work.
  • Go for a walk or play outside with my kids.
  • Sit on the couch next to my husband and watch something on TV that he wants to watch (even when I can’t stand it.)
  • Sit down with my journal and write out the things and people who I am thankful for and why.

It is not an easy thing to think about others when our world bombards us with the ideas that we should have what we want, that other people should make us happy, and that we should get our way in life. But we have to fight against that with everything we have within us if we truly want to be the people we have been created to be: people who love others above self. In order to fight those feelings of selfishness, we have to find ways to counteract them when they arise.

These are just a few of the things that I do to fight the selfishness within me, and I have to be very intentional to do so. It is so much easier to want what I want when I want it. But more than anything I want to be like Christ and put others before myself.

How about you? How do you fight your selfish urges?

Stirring

It’s amazing to me how God works.

A little thought.

A scripture that catches you just right.

A devotion you read.

A book you happen to pick up.

And then those little ideas grow. They become a regular part of your thinking. But you aren’t quite sure what to do about them.

Yet they continue to grow.

And then you hear a sermon. Or read a blog post. Or accidentally recommend a book to your Bible study group that further mixes things up.

And you start to act, somewhat blindly because you still aren’t sure what you are doing.

And you pray for God to give you wisdom. And passion.

And then you start another Bible study group book that begins to bring even more into focus.

And your life continues to spiral into something altogether different from what you thought it would be.

And it is GOOD!

You have heard me talking about 7 over the last couple of months, so prepare yourself for Interrupted.

  • “He uses change…to change us.”
  • “Living on mission…[is] about intentionally living the gospel wherever you are.”
  • “[We are]…the opposite of counterculture. We [are] a mirror image of culture, just a churched-up version.”
  • “God raise up in me a holy passion.”
  • “Do I care? Am I moved by the suffering of all nations? Am I even concerned about the homeless guy on the corner? Am I willing to take the bible at face value and concur tat God is incredibly concerned with social justice? I won’t answer one day for the omissions of other people, nor will I get refit for the general philanthropy of someone else. It will come down to what I did. What you did. What we did together.”

I am ready and willing for my life to be interrupted. Are you?

Tethered

As my Bible study group finished up 7 and were trying to decide exactly how we would move forward, we made the decision to do a sale where we could make our excess available to others who might need it. Everything in the sale will cost a quarter (or nothing if it isn’t worth a quarter), donations will be accepted, and all the money raised will go to The Simple Room, a local charity whose purpose is to transform “youth by facilitating Christ-centered programming for spiritual, physical, mental and social development in efforts to empower youth to positively engage their community.”

Great idea, right?

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The problem for me is this: during the possessions week when we were supposed to be getting rid of stuff and going through everything in our house, I didn’t have time, so I am now attempting to get through everything before the sale on May 10.

I didn’t think it would be a problem: go through the storage closets and basement and make a huge pile of stuff that someone else could use but I don’t need.

I was wrong.

I started with the excess forms of media in my house: cassette tapes and VHS tapes. I covered my living room floor with them. A good chunk of them were tapes (both kinds) that I had personally recorded – off the radio and off the TV. What’s even sadder is I have lived in this house for 12 years next month and not once have I pulled out any of them to watch.

And yet, I had to say to my family, more than once, “tell me it is ok to get rid of this stuff.” This isn’t even sale-worthy stuff. This is straight to the trash can stuff. And I was having major issues letting go of it.

Why? Because it is tied to memories. And for some reason I am afraid that the memories won’t still be there without the tapes.

But they will be. And let’s be honest, I am never going to put in the VHS tape of Garth Brooks on the CMA awards in 199_ (I have multiple years). I am never going to watch Travis Tritt act in that western he was in again. And the movies recorded on those VHS tapes? There’s no guarantee the end of the movie is even on the tape (I’ve fallen into that trap before). And cassettes? Well, I had a bunch of them numbered and had a hand-written list of what songs I had recorded off the radio on them. But as with all good radio mix tapes, the beginnings of the songs are cut off. And if I really want to hear those songs, I have access to Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes if I feel the need to have the song in my library.

And let’s not even get me started on the cassette tapes that I purchased (Columbia House Music club anyone?). (Not to worry, the same OCD that made a hand-written list of songs recorded from the radio also has a list of every cassette tape I own so I could replace it with a CD – or now .mp3 – version when and if necessary).

I don’t even own a cassette player! And I am struggling with getting rid of these things.

I think the real issue for me (and probably you, too) is we like our stuff around us. It gives us comfort. It reminds us of the past. It makes us feel secure.

But our security doesn’t come from this stuff. In fact, this stuff can actually hinder our eternal security.

Matthew 6:19-21 (The Message) says:

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

Do I want to spend eternity here, on earth, with stuff that won’t last? When I find myself tethered to my stuff that is exactly what I am saying.

Ugh. That’s not what I really want, is it?

I threw my recordings on VHS and cassette in the trash. I couldn’t even leave them in the house for spring clean-up week because I didn’t want to let them back into my storage space – or heart.

Lord, help me be tethered only to You and to the treasures you have for me in heaven.