Wednesday, June 24, 2009

No such thing as Will Power

I came to the realization, yesterday, that there is no such thing as will power. If there was, I would be a size six, exercise everyday for two hours, eat only 1500 calories a day, maintain my cleaning/organization program, etc.

My will says, “I want all of those things.” It says, “I want to feel good about myself, I want to be healthy, I don’t want to be stressed.” But there is this thing called flesh. I shudder at the word. I hates it precious (sorry…meaningless Lord of the Rings reference). The flesh overrules our so called will power.

Okay, I am going to get a little Christian on you all. When one becomes a believer, they receive the Holy Spirit. Side note: I believe we get the Holy Spirit at the time of our “new birth,” not after we’ve spoken in tongues, which is what I used to believe. The Holy Spirit dwells inside of us and around us. The Holy Spirit is a real person, who has equal status with the Father and Son. Why is this important? Because that means he is powerful! So we have our own will, and the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us.

However, because we are NOT PERFECT like Christ, and because we are bound by our flesh and fleshly desires, we will never be able to use the Holy Spirit to His full potential. Christ also had to deal with flesh, the Bible says he was tempted. But, he was also God, who would be practiced in the Fruit of the Spirit. One of the fruits being “Self Control,” or discipline.
What does that have to do with weight loss/being lazy? Well, I realized that in order to change, a person needs DISCIPLINE! The person needs to just get off the couch or out of bed and exercise. Even if they don’t feel like it, even if their left big toe hurts or whatever. Nike has it right, “Just Do It.” You do need some sort of will. I won’t discredit will. But, you’re never going to accomplish what you want if you try to base your whole life on will.

Of course, all this preaching is really for myself.
So how do we gain discipline or self control? I don’t know. For a Christian it probably looks like reading God’s word, studying passages on discipline and self control, meditating on those verses, pray to God, depend on the Holy Spirit, flee from things that make you stumble, etc. For the non Christian, sorry. I got nothing. I am so glad I have the Lord to turn to when I am lost and need guidance. I don’t know where I would be without him.

Disneyland

I had a great trip with the youth group. I ate rather well. I did splurge a few times, but I did better than I usually do on youth events. Bringing all my own food really helped. My stomach barely hurt the whole time too.

On the agenda for today:

Exercise, only eat a smoothie for lunch, and an orange, banana, and almonds for a snack, clean my house, do some research and relax.

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