Skip to main content

Ch-ch-changes

This morning I decided to come up with new lyrics for Old 100th or the Doxology for use during our children's service. I love "praise God from whom all blessings flow", but it's hard to explain some of those concepts to a 3-year-old. I was trying to keep the same scan (number of syllables in time to the music), but I kept trying out different sentences. This floated to the top of my consciousness several times today until I finally solved the problem.

At one point, I was showering at the gym when I realized, I was singing to myself, not opera-style, but loudly enough that people nearby could hear me. I didn't stop, though, but kept going.

The novelty in this sentence isn't that I kept singing, it's that I was doing it in the shower at the gym. The gym that I have managed to visit every day this week.

Like so many people, I've made many resolutions about getting in better shape. I've joined gyms before. And I've never made it past about a week and a half. The effort would get to me. I wouldn't make the time and I'd always have excuses.

However, in mid-October, I decided I was done with that. I sought a new gym location. I made a new plan. I wear my workout clothes out of the house every day. The idea was that even if I didn't workout, I was still developing a habit. I've now worked out consistently for 3 weeks and I feel like a commercial.

I have more energy!

I have more stamina!

I feel stronger!

I'm happier!

In all honesty, I realized the other day that I haven't wanted to lay down on my couch and take a nap for a few weeks. And I'm really looking forward to working out. In fact, I feel disappointed when I realize I need to quit what I'm doing and get to work.

Which brings me back to my original point. I don't entirely know how, but my mind works in a different way when I'm exercising. It's like I can feel the synapses firing with new frequency and connections. Problems turn in my head and surface and I feel things coming to light. Exercise is helping me be better at my job.

This is still a new discipline for me, but the fact that I'm enjoying myself is going a long way toward becoming a habit.

New lyrics:

Thank God for everyone I know
For sky above and earth below
Thank God for moon and stars and sun
Thank God for family, food and fun.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good for you on both counts. Maybe my husband, a lay person who attends the weekly text study at our church, has the right idea. He's rigged up his ski machine with a board to hold his Bible, so he exercises, a lot each week, but on Tuesday evenings, he reads the lessons. BTW, our church is one of 30 in the ELCA using the new narrative lectionary.

Popular posts from this blog

I'm In

A few weeks ago ,  I was using voice-to-text to compose some prayers. After I was finished speaking the whole list, I was proof-reading the document and   realized that everywhere I said “Amen”, the voice-to-text wrote “I’m in”. “Amen” essentially means  “may it be so”,  but what would it look like to end our prayers with “I’m in”. What would change if we rose from our knees, left our prayer closets, closed our devotionals, and moved with purpose toward the goals for which we had just prayed.  Lord, in your mercy:  Grant justice to the oppressed and disenfranchised (I’m in) Cast down the mighty from their thrones (I’m in)  Console the grieving and welcome the prodigal (I’m in)  Welcome strangers and attend to the marginalized (I’m in)  Grant the space for the silenced to speak… and listen (I’m in)  Fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty (I’m in)  Forgive others as I am forgiven (I’m in) Be merciful as God in h...

Top Ten Things to Learn from the book of Job

Readings: Job 1:1-22; Job 38:1-11; Luke 8: 22-25 10. Job contradicts Proverbs.   The writer of Proverbs offers the hope and consolation that people who live wisely and faithfully, according to the will of God, will flourish and prosper. The very first chapter of Job says: it ain’t necessarily so. You may well live righteously and with great integrity and, still, terrible things may happen. A faithful life is not an automatic buffer to calamity. Due to this contradiction between the books, both of which are categorized as wisdom literature, we are reminded of all those who have gone before us who tried to make the Bible speak with one voice. It doesn’t. The Bible has many voices, some of which are quite dissonant together, but they sing one song about the presence and providence of God.  9. Job is an old story, but a young book, relatively speaking. Since Job doesn’t mention Abraham or Moses or the laws or the Temple, some interpreters have considered it the oldest story ...

While to That Rock I'm Clinging (Epiphany 2025)

I recently read a book that contained this line, “God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. I can see that now, from a distance.” God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. The author was discussing the griefs and losses of her life, but also her awareness of the larger scope of the movement and power that carries us all, even in the difficult seasons. You do not survive these seasons by thinking there is no God unless the idea of a God who cares, who is slow to anger, who is abounding in steadfast love has been drilled out of you.   How does the idea of God get “drilled out of a person”? In today’s scripture passages, we have an example of people who have held on to the majesty and mystery of God, even in times of trouble. Then we also have a person whose awareness of the Divine has been drilled out by a desire to retain power and worldly influence.  The magi or wise men were probably Persian astrologers or maybe Zoroastrian priests from the same region, modern-day...