I suppose I should confess that over the last few months I’ve been hanging out way too much with Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater Buttered Popcorn. It wasn’t as if I could have been satisfied with the dried up, no taste, no salt, popcorn that Connie insists on buying…that stuff is so dry, you don’t even have to wash your hands after eating it! No, I developed a solid relationship with Orville’s Movie Theater Butter…loaded with salt, and enough butter so you literally can’t hold onto the bag when you get a handful! Maybe I self-justified the healthiness by focusing too much on the bold letters at the top of the box that said “100% whole grain.” Sounds healthy to me!
So…suddenly I find that several pairs of my pants are suddenly too long. At first I thought maybe I was shrinking,…but, now I see clearly that the pants just hang lower, trying to find a comfortable spot under my belly. Now clearly, 7 extra pounds is not a massive crisis, but, if we do the math. I gained 7 pounds in four months. Over a year, that’s a potential 21 extra pounds. That is a big deal!
Connie has been encouraging me to get myself fit…so, I decided that this morning I would start doing what I need to do to get healthier. She is out with our daughter for the day, so, I can get on the exercise equipment without embarrassing myself in front of her. This was not as good an idea as I hoped, because after ten minutes, I was worn out, sweating like I was in a sauna, and needing a shower and change of clothes. I immediately hopped on the scale, hoping to find the 7 pounds that Orville contributed just disappear. It’s pretty apparent, that your metabolism goes on sabbatical when you turn 62 because that little 10 minutes did nothing. It would have been easier to just sit here and “think” more about being healthy. Frustrated, and now resigning myself to wearing pants from the “husky” side of my closet,… I have decided something needs to change. I need to commit myself. I need to apply more focus and purpose to my diet. I need better discipline in my habits.
Do you know that we need to do the same thing with our Deity as we do our diet? Those with great focus and determination to get healthy physically will approach their diet with gusto… devouring spinach, and broccoli and drinking massive amounts of water. We will kill ourselves in the gym, because we made a commitment to being healthy and we go about executing that commitment with a ferocity….all while ignoring our faith.
- We would read the Bible,… if we think of it.
- We would grab a little quiet time for meditation,… if nothing else came up.
- We would pray in between our busy stuff,… if I could fit God into the margins of my day.
I suppose I wouldn’t have been so bothered by my realization about my diet if the Bible was fuzzy on this issue,… but it is unfortunately not. Here is what Proverbs 3:9 (NLT) says: “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the best part of everything your land produces.” Other translations use the word, “firstfruits”. What a powerful word! We’re not called to give God the scraps of our life…the leftovers…but rather the “best parts”
Can you imagine what church would be like if everyone gave the best parts of their creativity to the Lord instead of feeding it our leftover and rotting fruit? Can you imagine what church would be like if we gave the best parts of our love? Can you imagine what it would be like for your life if you gave God the best parts of your time, instead of leftover, rotten fruit?
I’m going to try to change that…because I believe when I begin to give God my best parts in the morning, when I start the day with Him,… the rest of the day will look different. I will see His hand more clearly, and hear His voice louder, and feel His touch much closer. Let’s give God our best parts…not leftover rotting fruit.
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