Denying Myself is Fun ... damentally hard!!

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me..."  -Jesus of Nazareth


"Perhaps in our affluent society fasting involves a far larger sacrifice than the giving of money."
 - Richard Foster, Celebration Of Discipline, p66


"Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?" - Homer Simpson




The thought kept coming back to me last week, "Fasting and prayer."  "Fasting and prayer."  
I thought it might be my body revolting after some jalepenos & onion straws.


But it kept coming back to me.  "I need to deny myself."  


One does not reach 350 pounds by being disciplined.  He does so by letting his stomach have whatever it wants.  


If I follow Jesus and he says that my body is a "temple of the Holy Spirit," I should treat it as such. But I don't view my form of gluttony as being very sinful.  Just like you don't view your form of (insert sin here) as being very sinful.  


We scorn the smoker who is damaging her body and chained in addiction.  We banish them to the far reaches of the property while I finish off my fifth donut and you replace the coffee iv that gets you through the day.


It's so easy to judge the speck in your eye while totally missing the log in my own.  


So my goal over the next month is to deny myself some things that I want.  (An exciting experiment, I know!)  I do so in the hopes that I would grow more dependent on Jesus and knowing that it is far easier said than done.


I'm thinking that a little bit of fasting is all it takes to lose 8 or 10 pant sizes.   Right?


Right?  


Anyone?   

Change I Actually Believe in

I spent Fathers Day with my family peering over the edge of a cliff at the Garden of the Gods.  That's not so revolutionary until I remember three years ago I only wanted two presents:  Peace and Quiet!  Instead, I was excited to haul my two year old around the rocks chasing my 6 year old!

It seems that I don't notice changes in my attitude/character until something crazy happens, like preferring to hike with a pregnant wife and two children rather than watch tv all day.

I was thinking how oblivious we can be, sometimes, to our own needs for maturity and growth.  How many people enjoy examining themselves searching for character flaws?   

So it wasn't a good idea to be reading a section of 1 Corinthians 11 that night.  I got stuck on the phrase, "Let a person examine himself..."  

Now I'm getting better at how I respond when a trusted friend calls me on something.  But "Examine himself"? That's coming MUCH slower.  But it's coming.  

And I wonder, how can I help my children be better at this than I am?  

My goal as a dad has become to face and deal with my junk so my kids don't have to...  They'll have enough of their own!  So how do I instill in them the habit of checking their blind spots?  

I had a chance already this week.  We were eating dinner and I thought I heard my son kicking his chair.  I said, "stop" and took a bite.  The kicking continued.  I said it a little louder, "STOP."  ...

The kicking CONTINUED.  

Finally I put my hand on my son's arm, shook it a little and said, "Son, you HAVE to listen to Dad when I'm talking to you."  

And my wife says, "He's not doing that.  Your daughter is."  

I HATE BEING WRONG!

Couple that with the fact that I LOVE being right and I faced a dilemma.  

I could have shrugged it off and kept eating.  I could have transferred the speech to the beautiful girl kicking her high chair.

Instead, I grabbed my son's hand and apologized.  

I was wrong and had to admit it.  I was wrong and chose not to make excuses.

Hopefully that becomes a habit with me.

But even more importantly, I hope I'm building that as a foundation in the lives of my children.  

That, and laughing at the sound of bodily functions, of course!