today is july 31

Okay, I’m not joking when I say every morning I wake up, I hop out of bed, and I run to the mirror to see if I have any abs. I’m like a kid running down the stairs to see if Santa brought me presents. It has yet to happen, I still have solid no-pack, but it got me thinking about why God just can’t gift me a 4 pack. Like, why must it involve daily pain and resistance to build muscle? And even then, even after I’ve been after it for months, the results are sloooow.

And then it occurs to me he designed it all that way. The very system designed for the micro is the same as for the macro. Why can’t I wake up one day and be gifted perfection? Where I don’t make bad decisions and am genuinely nice ALL THE TIME. And while we’re at it, why is it so easy to ruin progress? The house of cards takes forever to put into position, but one tiny thing can quickly demolish everything. Why?

I’m not going to answer that. I get it. Long obedience in the same direction. (Eugene H. Peterson.)

As I sit on my couch this 31st day of July in the year of 2021, I am choosing to get up and try to follow along to my little work out lady on the television’s instructions. I will choose not to make those Red Lobster cheddar baked biscuits and eat all of them in one sitting, and I will choose to follow Jesus again today even though I have no idea if the work I’m doing is building anything. I choose because I have faith that the processes he put in place are good ones. That his wisdom is greater than mine. That I already have everything I need. And I thank him for the opportunity to know and serve him.