It's like circumcision...

Or atleast that's what I am told. The DeNeff sermon we listened to this weekend focused on circumcision...of the Old Testament, that is, and how it is to be paralleled in our lives today. Not literally. But sort of.

Let me start over. It was a great sermon on obedience to God and bearing the mark of a covenant with Him. Biblical example: God chose Abraham to be the father of many nations (covenant) and He told Abraham to have all the men circumcised before they went any further to set them apart as chosen by God (bearing the mark). Probably not the way Abraham would have chosen to be set apart, but that's usually the case with God. There is nothing wrong with not being circumcised...God still accepts into heaven people who are not. It is not the mark that gets you into heaven...it is, in a way, being willing to bear the mark. Not entirely, but you know what I mean.

DeNeff's crossover application into our lives was the challenge to live a circumcised life. It reminded me of the classic youth camp sermon on giving up what you know is wrong of you to be doing because you are a Christian...giving up what you feel God is asking you to give up...except that DeNeff wasn't asking us to give up bad habits, necessarily. He put it like this: "You say, 'But God, there's nothing wrong with this.' 'I know.' 'Other people don't have to give this up.' 'I know.' 'This has nothing to do with spirituality.' Silence. 'This is stupid.' Silence." Sometimes God asks us to give up perfectly good and natural things so that He can do something supernatural. Sometimes we can have those things back eventually, sometimes we can't. Sometimes the "something supernatural" is seen clearly by all who cross your path, sometimes you won't even know what it was all about until you get to ask Him to His face.

My thing for right now is exercise. And do not think for one moment that I am even the slightest bit happy about this. I know, it is strange because 90% of our nation has given it up with joy and relief...but it has been one of the hardest things for me for several reasons. First and foremost, I am terrified of gaining weight. Of all the things I do not want to be, chubby is the number one...been there, done that, not wishing to repeat. But second, and forgive how pathetic this sounds, but it is the truth, Denise Austin is the only friend I have out here. I am not even kidding...I so look forward to working out with her on her TV show every morning because she is encouraging, upbeat, and I can pretend it is just her and me hanging out, working out. It sounds lame even to me, but it is the sad truth.

But I understand why God is asking this of me right now--not that I need to understand, because obedience should not depend on understanding. But it certainly helps when you have an idea what's going on. :) I let my half hour with Denise be all my socialization because I am afraid to get out in the community and meet people (not having a church is not helping). I spend more time with Denise than I do with Him by far, and there are some very serious issues at hand that need immediate addressing...I need to be pouring that energy into my walk with God and into praying for and growing through these issues. I don't think He will ban me from working out forever, but my priorities are seriously misaligned and it is doing more damage than I am willing to admit.

So I am concluding my third day of 40 days without Denise, and so far I have not been making good use of the extra time. Dealing with issues does not mean taking naps. But maybe now that I've gone public with it, I'll feel like someone's checking up on me.