Fit for the Father

I am on a journey. It’s a daily walk with Christ and in that daily walk with Christ, He asks me to pick up my cross and follow HIM. I have recently experienced a huge burden for the lost and have been prayerfully asking God what is it that HE wants me to do with that burden. I have led several groups through a women’s Bible study on evangelism because I just thought if I have that burden then I must share it with others. The groups are now over and I am still left with this burden. I have been in continual prayer to see where God would lead me in this but I have not gotten a clear direction. I sort of live in a Christian bubble so most of the people on a daily basis that I am around are already Christians. I figured that maybe I should find a way to be around non-believers in an attempt to find opportunities to share the gospel.

In this endeavor, I have spent the last several months reading books on evangelism as well as praying and contemplating what HIS Word is saying to me in Matthew 28:16-20. I have asked Him to show me what that looks like for me. You see, I long to follow Jesus in radical ways. I want to be a disciple maker and I want to love my neighbor as myself. I have looked for where Jesus is at work around me so that I could jump in.

However, in all of these areas, I see that I am not battle ready. It is not that I am not equipped with God’s Word in my heart, or that I don’t feel like God can use me just like I am, because He already is, but He has shown me that I am not in any physical shape to do any of these things. I want to go on a mission trip to another country to help with the poor, I want to prayer walk the neighborhood, I want to help those ministries that are ministering to the poor and the hungry in my town but one thing is stopping me; my health.

I am morbidly obese and my knees are shot and now I have back problems to the point that I can’t hardly stand. I injured my knees when I was 17 in a skiing accident and then injured my back when I was in my early 20’s, so I always knew that I should keep my weight down to a healthy level. Unfortunately, however, I have allowed it to get out of control and now I am paying the price. I am not fit for service and my self indulgence and lack of self control are to blame.

I have, over the course of many years, lost weight successfully but I have never been successful in keeping it off. I have tried every diet there is pretty much and it has, I’m sure, taken it’s toll on my metabolism. In January this year, I found myself in the hospital for a week unable to eat. In my twisted mind I was thinking, “well at least I will lose some weight”. However the part that I did not count on was how long it would take for me to get back my energy to do anything like shop for healthy food and cook dinner. It has been 7 months now and I have gained quite a bit of weight due to not eating healthy because I was just too tired to care.

Now, back to my journey. God has been gracious to show me that if I am going to be a useful servant, I will have to work on getting healthy. I think that there are many ways to be unfit for service, mine just happens to be my weight. There is a reason that men and women don’t just join the military and are immediately shipped off to serve. They spend many weeks getting fit for service and then and only then are they ready.

So this is my challenge to myself; concentrate on getting healthy and prayerfully consider healthy choices in food and exercise. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self control so I know that I have no excuse not to pray for that to be evident in my choices. I am already 8 days into this part of my journey and I have lost 6 pounds but I have so very far to go. I am writing this to be accountable to the journey God has me on right now. I would love for you to join me in this journey to be Fit for the Father so that we can effectively serve and minister to others.

This is not a weight loss group with a diet plan, however I may share recipes or nutritional information. I am currently doing Weight Watchers online and will continue with that since it has been one that has worked for me in the past. I encourage you to prayerfully consider what kind of plan might work for you. I would love to hear from you in your journey and if there is enough interest, I will start a Facebook group where we can all encourage each other in our success and failure.

I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1 (NIV)