Just had my long-awaited and summarily needed doctor’s appointment for a couple of whining and complaining knees. This had begun to make itself known years ago, along with several other things; it’s like I turned 31 and the warranty on my body expired. I honestly don’t care too much about doing any more 5-K’s—I hated running when even when I was in high school sports,(which wasn’t much back in the 70’s compared to today’s competitive environment.) I would, however, like to walk without a limp, and pursue terrain hiking and off-road biking a little more than I have so far.
Unfortunately, one of our daughters has inherited her mom’s inconvenient orthopaedic anomaly, and on top of that, was considerably more athletic in high school. There wear and tear on her knees drove her to more drastic measures at her young age, and in the process of physical therapy she was given a series of exercises that are a bit different from our culture’s machismo attitude of “no pain, no gain” mentality. No weights, at least to begin with, no gym facility fees, just simple, isometric, and easy things to do for rehab. In fact, she confessed that when she had stopped doing the prescribed exercises (given to her by the professional experts, I might underline, they seemed too easy) the difficulties began to return, and were improved when she started again. Hmmm…
Similarly, we tend to think that being with God has to be hard. I’m not knocking those that do the 40-day fasting kind of thing, but it’s probably not a good place for most of us to start. It’s easy to think that if I can’t be proficient in something immediately, then why bother? Starting and “failing” (however you define that) and starting again; it’s just too discouraging.
What we tend to miss in this line of reasoning is that, when it comes to getting to know our true Father, failure is only defined as not starting at all, and or once started, being persistent even the “small” things. There are lots of other strategies for this divine relationship that I would like to explore in this format….later. But suffice it to say for now, that just getting started in a way that seems far too easy is the first step, with surprising results.
Now it’s time to do those wall sits that my husband has been telling me to do all along. (I’ll probably never live THAT one down…) –dawnlizjones
INSPIRATION with an ATTITUDE 