The Daniel Plan Week 3 - Rejoice!

Life is messy and painful.

What an uplifting start, huh? Merry Christmas to all! Life is messy and painful.

But it’s the truth — heartbreak happens. And we have to decide what we choose to do with it. Before I give you my progress report on how I’m doing on The Daniel Plan and the start of my 3rd week on the plan, I want to tell you about one of my favorite Bible warriors: Naomi. She had a heck of a heart-wrenching story.

Naomi didn’t pretend it was fine and paste a churchy smile on. She suffered out loud (like me) and then turned to praise out loud, too.

The story goes like this: During a time of serious famine, Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Kilion had to leave Bethlehem to settle in Moab, in the mountains on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. Elimelech died there and the boys married local girls, Orpah and Ruth. Ten years later, Naomi’s sons also died (Their names mean “sickly” and “dying/ending” so that isn’t a huge surprise.) leaving her in a foreign land with two daughters-in-law and no male to provide for and protect them.

So, she picked herself up, and headed back to Judah with the girls. A little way down the road, Naomi blessed her daughters-in-law and told them to go back and find good local boys to settle down with. They argued back and forth but Naomi said “Go, girls. Everybody knows that guys my age don’t marry women my age, and even if they did, I can’t provide sons to be husbands for you again. God has dealt me a hard blow.”

Orpah turned back for home, but Ruth made a solemn vow to stick with Naomi no matter what. When they finally arrived in Bethlehem, the town buzzed with happiness to see Naomi. When she heard them call her name, she said, “Don’t even think about calling me a name that means “pleasant”! God has utterly devastated my life, so from now on I answer to Mara which means “bitter”!”

BUT, Naomi kept going. She pressed on. She didn’t lie down and die even though she was crushed and hopeless. God was about to bless her more than she ever could have imagined!

Later that season, Ruth was gleaning barley (which was sort of like food stamps — farmers didn’t harvest the outside rim of fields leaving the food for the poor to collect and eat) and she met the owner of the field, Boaz, who was a prominent, rich relative. She caught Bo’s eye and he asked around about beautiful, young Ruth, and heard all about how she didn’t leave Naomi when disaster struck, but remained faithful. This impressed him so he instructed his servants to give her the best barley and special treatment.

When Naomi heard about this, she said, “Wow! Maybe God hasn’t quite abandoned us after all!” and told Ruth that Bo was actually what was called a Kinsman Redeemer. That meant that he had the privilege acting in defense of a relative who was in trouble, danger, or who needed to be vindicated. Here comes Bo to save the day!

At the end of the harvest, Naomi helped Ruth pretty-up and told her to go propose to Bo. Long story short, Bo married the beauty. God gave them a baby. And, Naomi was so crazy about this new little man that everyone called baby Obed hers and she devoted her life to grandmothering a boy who would become the grandfather of King David — one of King Jesus’ great-granddads!

The town women said to Naomi, “Blessed be God! He didn’t leave you without family to carry on your life. May this baby grow up to be famous in Israel! He’ll make you young again! He’ll take care of you in old age. And this daughter-in-law who has brought him into the world and loves you so much, why, she’s worth more to you than seven sons!” Naomi took the baby and held him in her arms, cuddling him, cooing over him, waiting on him hand and foot. The neighborhood women started calling him “Naomi’s baby boy!” But his real name was Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. — Ruth 4:14-17

Out of His inscrutable love, God saw Naomi determine to press on through pain, suffering, grief, loss, and a bitter mess, and in time He blessed her beyond her wildest dreams!

“God has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense.” — C. S. Lewis

Glory to God in the Highest!

Right in the middle of the tangles, the betrayals, the losses, the stunning blows, we are called not to keep going, not to muscle our way through, not to trudge on with a fake smile, but we are called to stand, to continue to run the race set before us with endurance, and to REJOICE in our loving, gracious God who sees, protects, defends, and redeems even the worst of tragedies!

Whaaat??? Naomi didn’t do it perfectly, and that’s what I like about her. She was messy. She complained. She didn’t just dabble in hopelessness, she dove into the deep end. She felt abandoned by God and made no bones about telling people about it. BUT, she kept going and seized the moment when she saw God revealing His awesome plan! She trusted Him in the middle of the worst of it!

Here’s a truth about suffering, rejection, hardship, loss, mistreatment, abuse, and every other manner of terribleness: We get to choose what we do with it.

We Can Throw a Fit… Or Get Fit

We can decide to live in the healthiest, most positive, prepared, way possible and let our mess be used to glorify God and serve others or not. We have the honor and privilege of choosing to live submitted to God, repentant, obedient, armed and ready for battle and service, willing to let Him sharpen and shape our lives and guide our steps, or we can resist, and fight, and freak out, and say the wrong things, and do the wrong things, make big messes and bigger excuses blame-shifting every step of the way and become basically unusable to God except as a shiny illustration of How NOT To Do It.

(By the way, don’t follow my example which was basically to hit devastation and to try to control it, force it, beg, cry, manipulate, wig out, get angry, panic, and then lie down and sob, complain, and yell at God. A lot. Ask anybody in the Western United States. They can testify.)

Finally, like my girl Naomi, I quit flipping out and got up off my keister, and began dusting off the ashes of a burned down life and cried out Jesus, Take The Wheel. Then, I started to realize that I couldn’t exactly run the race ready and fit for whatever God asked me to do while lying at the bottom of the shower in grief, being a couch potato discouraged and lazy, eating and drinking junk and feeling lousy. You simply cannot be fit enough to run any race anywhere parked and pouting.

Right in the middle of the mess and the pain of the Christian life, we can choose to throw a fit… or to get fit for the journey ahead.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. — Hebrews 12:1

Lay aside every weight and clingy sin… That means repent. As I mentioned last week, it means wage war against the asphyxiating bondage of Self.

Run with endurance… Get in the Word every day. Walk with Jesus all day. Quit bad habits in His Strength.

Hijacking My Body Back

These goals included hijacking my body back:

• to get healthy after taking really poor care of myself for far too long. No more “I’m too busy” to exercise. I have only so many days on this earth to serve and honor God and only one body to serve Him with! I want to have the energy to do whatever He asks of me!
• No more naughty eating habits! Eat green stuff. Drink lots of water.

• Personally, I want to feel less frumpy and be less lumpy. (I also want to be sparkling and full of energy to don my Mouse Ears and tromp all over Disneyland with grandbabies someday!)

“Today is a brand new day with no mistakes in it.” — Anne of Green Gables

But, can you really make a difference in your fitness after 40-whatever? YES! No matter what our age, you and I are not too old to get back at it (or to start)!

Getting fit doesn’t have to mean going to the extreme of becoming a fierce gym rat. (Unless wearing yoga pants qualifies one as a gym rat, in which case the answer is always yes.) But, if you haven’t noticed, we are more apt to rejoice when our bodies feel great and we have energy to play.

She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. — Proverbs 31:17

There are so many different, healthy, fun ways to get your sweat on! Here’s my take on some popular fitness options:

• Team sports… unless it involves throwing or catching a ball because I think my wrists were screwed on the wrong way.
• Fast walking… love it
• Running… but not for me. Like the Grinch, I feel running is something I “Hate, hate, hate. Hate, hate, hate. Double hate. LOATHE ENTIRELY!” I want to run the race, but not actually ruuun the race. I would totally do marathons if they were 2.62 miles!
• Weight lifting… great if you want to go sleeveless next summer, which coincidentally, I do.
• Stand up paddle… which I mentioned is über fun
• Zumba… es mui caliente unless you happen to catch your suavé moves in the mirror. That’s just deflating to put it mildly!
• Hot yoga… aka self-imposed Hades
• Kick boxing… fierce and it’s cheaper than therapy
• Swimming… I have no idea what is up with those wetsuit-less ocean swimmers in winter. Polar bear craziness!
• Golf… not really exercise, guys. Sorry.
• Biking… Except for saddle soreness, it’s really fun.
• Rock-wall climbing… sounds vaguely fun with a splash of scary
• Really, anything but running or squats.

“Squats are a form of torture designed by people who don’t need to do squats in the first place.” ― Nora Roberts

Keep going, friends! Eyes on Jesus! Run the race! Trust God to be your own personal Kinsman Redeemer in the messy painful! And Rejoice!

So here’s how I’m doing so far on The Daniel Plan:

My Progress Report

FAITH & FOCUS — The Daniel Plan Journal is helping! I find that if I record what I’m doing, I will hold myself accountable!

FOOD — Dr. H’s Whole Food Protein Shake is definitely growing on me. My eldest daughter joined me this week after she got home for Christmas break from my alma mater, Westmont College, and aside from the hummus/turkey/romaine rolls, this shake is her favorite!

FITNESS & FRIENDS — I exercised 4 days last week, once with my college girl, and once with a dear friend. Friends make fitness FUN! If you are not motivated to get moving, grab a buddy!

FITNESS FRUSTRATION — The truth is that my eternal secret fantasy is that weight will just fall off my body easy-peasy, but it never happens that way. Losing weight on The Daniel Plan has been slower than I wish. I know, I know, it’s healthier that way, so just Shhh! It probably has to do with how much I’ve already lost before I started The Daniel Plan (about 30 lbs), so I take comfort there – I know that the last 10 lbs. is the hardest to lose!

By the way, don’t tell someone who’s slimming down that you can totally see the difference in her… shoulders! You might as well say “Gee, your earlobes are lookin’ trim, lady!” Hint: Just say, “Wow! Go you!”

Prayer

Dear Lord, I love You. Thank You for entering into my mess and being my Kinsman Redeemer. Thank You for loving me “in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense”. Create in me a believing, hopeful, trusting, rejoicing heart no matter what my circumstances. Help me to choose to respond to hardship, disappointment, trial, suffering, and any manner of difficulty that You allow in a way that glorifies You and edifies others. Help me to have a repentant heart, laying aside every weight and clingy sin and to run the race with endurance. I trust You with every part of myself. I am Yours and Yours alone.

Join the Conversation

Don’t leave me hangin’… Have you ever handled a season of suffering badly? What did you determine out of it? Do you relate to Naomi as I do? Have you made changes in your personal fitness plan? What’s your favorite way to get moving? Please leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you! Fellow cuh-ray-zees who are with me on The Daniel Plan during The Christmas season, how are you doing? If you haven’t already, join me! Those of you who are starting after the New Year, let me know! I’d love to cheer you on!

Also, don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, where I’m posting daily pics and updates on my meals and progress! Your encouragement helps and I hope I’m an encouragement to you as well!

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