Made to Crave - Chapter 9: But Exercise Makes Me Want to Cry

I'm sharing the high points that I found in each chapter and then I answer the questions at the end of each chapter with my honest feelings. I'm reading the book on my Kindle, so I don't have page numbers for any of the thoughts I have taken from the book. This has been a journey that has spanned at least a decade for me. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm farther along than I used to be. Walk with me and feel free to share your thoughts. Be kind. Be blessed.

Each of the following points were taken straight from the book. No plagiarizing intended.

• I would halfheartedly do something physical a couple times a week, hating every minute of it. The most frustrating part was halfhearted efforts only produced mediocre results.
• While spiritual justifications also sounded good, in my heart I still wasn’t settled. I knew my weight issue didn’t have anything to do with me being spiritual or worldly. If I was honest with myself, my issue was plain and simple – a lack of self-control. I could sugar-coat it and justify it all day long, but the truth was I didn’t have a weight problem; I had a spiritual problem. I depended on food for comfort more than I depended on God. And I was simply too lazy to make time to exercise.
• Every day I asked God to give me the strength to stick with it this time. I’d tried so many other times and failed after only a few weeks. The more I made running about spiritual growth and discipline, the less I focused on the weight. Each lost pound was not a quest to get skinny but evidence of obedience to God.
• The more I focused on running toward God, the less I thought about my desire to stop. And this verse from the Psalms came to life: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26)
• Was it hard? Yes. Was it tempting to quit? Absolutely. Could I do this in my own strength? Never. But this really wasn’t about running. It was about realizing the power of God taking over my complete weakness.
• “Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O LORD my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever” (Psalm 86:11-12)
• When it comes to my body, I can’t live with divided loyalties. I can either be loyal to honoring the Lord with my body or loyal to my cravings, desires, and many excuses for not exercising.
• “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
• Now, I’m not saying God will cause bad things to happen to us if we don’t exercise, but there are natural consequences for not taking care of our bodies. People who don’t care for their bodies now will live with the consequences of those choices at some point. Be it more weight and less energy now or heart disease later, our choices matter both in the physical sense and the spiritual sense.
• In the spiritual sense, when I’m not taking care of my body, I feel much more weighted down by my stress and problems. I have less energy to serve God and more thorny emotions to wade through when processing life.
• My mom loves to say the best kind of exercise is the kind you’ll do.

Personal Reflections

1. What thoughts, emotions, or images come to mind when you think about exercise? Are your associations positive, negative, or a mix? My first thought is sweaty and out of breath, muscle aches. But my second thought is I’m not as sore as I used to be. I kinda like to jog!
2. Lysa describes her experience of literally running on faith one day when god prompted her to keep running until He told her to stop. She ran 8.6 miles, 5.6 miles farther than she had ever run before. What experiences have you had that required faith you didn’t think you had to see something through? What did you learn? How did it impact your relationship with God? A couple years ago I was in a running group called "Run For God". Its Bible Study where we all go through a "Couch to 5K" program together. I had never really tried running before and from the beginning felt like such a failure. I couldn't even manage the first 30 second segment of running. One of the two leaders always took turns going at the back of the pack so I never had to run alone. Our goal at the end of the study was to do a 5k together. The only one available that worked for most of us was a small charity run. The 6 of us that were able to make it lined up with the rest of the pack. The starter went off and so did we. Before we had even reached the 1st mile marker, I was feeling defeated as almost everybody in the entire race had passed me already. There were only about 100 runners total but I felt so broken hearted that I couldn't keep up with any of them. I wasn't about to give up even though the tears started falling. I pushed forward with my ipod of Christian songs. Praying and running/walking, hoping I didn't get lost in this neighborhood that I'd never been in before. Somewhere between mile 2 and 3 I looked up when I thought I heard my name. My trainer had completed the race and came back to find me and help me finish up. That was God to me. Even when I felt alone, He didn't want me to forget that He was there. Through her encouragement  I finished the race with my best time ever. (44'25") I knew I could count on God to get me through when I felt like I couldn't go on.
3. In what areas of life do you feel strong? For example, in your professional knowledge, your gifts of hospitality, your creative skills, your ability to pray for others, etc. Have you ever used these strengths to help someone who was weak or didn’t know as much as you did? How might such experiences give you insights into what it means to allow God’s power to take over your weaknesses, especially weaknesses with food and exercise? I think hospitality is one of my strongest ones. I like to make people feel welcome and wanted because that is something I struggle with myself. God affirms me so often that I am doing the right thing by welcoming these people. Knowing I made somebody feel loved as I want to be loved makes me feel like I can persevere through anything. God will always love me even when I feel like such a social misfit. He will give me whatever I need to get through any situation.
4. “Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name” (Psalm 86:11) When it comes to your body, what forces compete for your attention and loyalty”? My desire to satisfy my every want conflicts with my desire to do what is right. Do you feel torn between the desire to honor God and the desire to be loyal to cravings and excuses for not exercising? I do feel torn. I really want to stuff myself full of all the sweet and salty goodies whenever I want to. I really want to curl up all day and watch movies while my family is away at work or school. But I know those things are not what God wants for me. Some days are such a struggle to be obedient. How do you imagine your life might be different if you had an undivided heart? If my heart was undivided I could eat the things that were most beneficial to me. I could get the physical exercise I need to get my body healthy. I could encourage my family by being a good example.
5. When you think about your schedule and daily demands, which of the following statements come closes to describing how you feel about your time:
1. Most of my time is within my control. I have a limited number of responsibilities or obligations that can’t be changed but I am otherwise able to plan my own schedule. This is closest to describing how I spend my time.
2. Some of my time is within my control. I have several responsibilities or obligations that can’t be changed, but I do have pockets of time each week that I can use for things I want to do.
3. Almost none of my time is within my control. My responsibilities and obligations are all consuming right now. The only way I could add one more thing to my schedule is to skip what little sleep I manage to get each night.
4. How does your response help you understand your feelings about making time to exercise? I know I have the time to exercise. But I struggle to make good use of my time. On a scale of one to ten (one being very little and ten being a great deal), how much effort would it take to make time in your schedule for regular exercise (three to five times a week)? I have 3 days a week that I try to not schedule anything so that I can make it to my water aerobics class. And 1 day that I go swimming with my family. I need to make more of an effort to get to the gym on those days that my schedule has changed. And maybe add running before my water class.
6. Lysa says about exercise, “I’ve learned to embrace the benefits instead of resisting the hardship.” Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On one side, list all the hardships of exercising; on the other side list all the benefits. Which list has more influence on you? Do you feel the benefits outweigh the hardships or vice versa? Can you imagine that it might be possible for you to embrace the benefits rather than resisting the hardships? Why or why not? Hardships: muscle aches, shortness of breath. Benefits: Less muscle aches than I used to, more stamina, clothes fit better, more energy. This is where I struggle... there are lots of days where the hardships win out because I don't want to be sore and tired. But if I can push through those feelings and go to the gym, I feel so much better! I'm ready to go the next day! I need to focus on how good it makes me feel to have been at the gym and not focus on the discomforts that are short term.