IN RESPECT TO PUMPING MINI-IRON....

“Physical therapy might help to jump start you,” suggested my doctor after having zeroed in on a current disorder of my bodily “earth suit.” Apparently my calendar-challenged body needed more exercise....

That launched me into a three times a week encounter with a young trainer chap named Kevin at the Kinetic-Balance Center. The trajectory he prescribed for me was not what is commonly thought of as body building and pumping iron with bulging muscles as the goal. I was to concentrate on trying to rescue, strengthen, and then maintain what puny muscles I had left as a nonagenarian after sitting for protracted periods for too many years at my computer in my writing studio.

Kevin told me to continue my prescribed regimen at home daily and buy some dumbbells for weight lifting. I had visions of the torture equipment in workout rooms depicted on TV, I asked how heavy they should be. “Two pounders,” replied Kevin. I bought them for a dollar apiece at a local thrift store. It didn't take me long to realize that was about all I could manage to lift anyway.

In addition to the P.T. program, I was to continue my thirty minute daily trip to nowhere on my recumbent stationary Schwinn 270 bike which time period was equal to five miles in distance—and gave me a few paltry calories to spend. In the flush of my initial enthusiasm for success, I was beginning “to take thought” that I really might be able to “add to my stature” (i.e. alter my body) if not by “a cubit,” (18 inches!..Jesus, were you exaggerating on purpose?) at least by a smidgen of strength for my mushy muscles.

After some weeks on that program I concluded exactly what Jesus had already told me in Matthew 6:27. “Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life?” One Bible version paraphrased it, “Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?” Some translations expanded the meaning to include “adding a single moment to your life, a single hour to your age, to your span of life.” The Message Bible applied it vividly: “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?” 

Bottom line? Nothing could be accomplished by simply “taking thought” (or being anxious, worrying). Even sweat and discipline and perseverance wouldn't cut it. That's true even for the man who by arduous training (or taking steroids?) attains a bulky body like the one pictured with this blog post. If he doesn't maintain his regimen, his exaggerated muscles degenerate to flabby again. So what's Jesus getting at?

Bible scholars differ in their interpretation of those verses, but some light is shed when the Matthew 6 verse is taken in context with 1 Timothy 4:7-9. Comparing translations, some read “bodily discipline, physical training of the body, exercise” “has some value, in some ways, has limited benefit, helps a little, is somewhat profitable, is not entirely useless.”

Bodily exercise is contrasted with godly exercise or “training in holy living.” Spiritual exercise is valuable in every way, useful for everything.” “Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come.” The Message Bible hits the mark again: “Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both for today and forever,” both for the present and the future.

So? I'll at least try to keep on hoisting those two-pound dumbbells and continue pushing those bike pedals to nowhere. It does “profit a little.” I know that I ought to exercise my temporal body because it tends to drag me toward the slippery slope of inactivity which in turn hinders my health and ability to do the work for which God called me.

Without exercising myself to internal godliness, even if I was able to pump serious iron, such physical exercise would be of little and temporary advantage. My priority daily spiritual exercise must be to present my mortal body, my "earth suit" to God in spiritual worship (Romans 12:1) for the welfare of my soul, to the pursuit of a holy life, since godliness is profitable in all things in the present and in the future.We can't beat that for a lasting result!

Bonus Gift Book Offer Extended by popular request

Available for the asking with the purchase of any of Leona's books 

including her latest releases.

190 page Gift book from Leona Choy

Author voiced!
A CD of the reading of the first 74 pages by the author included with the book.This is Leona's First Poetry Anthology now out-of-print in its original format.  A Collector's Item! Order your author signed copy 
while they last!

From the Introduction

    In our early years we struggle to fulfill ourselves through education, our jobs or careers, possibly in marriage and family relationships. Perhaps through our talents or skills or the approval of others. Time seems to be on our side. We rarely give its earthly termination a thought. 
    Suddenly, so it seems, we find ourselves in the mature years of life. It dawns on us that we aren't done yet! We haven't finished what we started. Many dreams haven't materialized. We are forced to abandon some and readjust others. We didn't achieve all our goals.
    WE HAVEN'T YET BECOME WHAT WE HAD HOPED TO BE.
    In frustration and then panic we may frantically try scrambling up some earthly ladder toward completion, attainment or success. Whatever happened to fulfillment? We stare into the face of increasing limitations.
    When we were younger, time seemed to drag its feet. Now time is pushing the accelerator down with both feet. Life is like mist or smoke: when we try to catch it, our fingers close around nothing. We keep asking, "Where did the time go?" Have we lost the entire centerfold of life?
    LIFE IS CROWDING US INTO A CORNER!
    Have you ever had the urge to seize a significant moment and hug it tightly? You want it to last forever. Perhaps a particular period of life or some enjoyable experience. Do you remember the childhood game of "Statue"?  You were supposed to "freeze" in whatever position you were when the command was given. If only you could freeze time at some ideal age or without any changes in your family situation, your strength or your health. Or preserve an especially happy moment.
    Fantasy!  Let's admit that we really wouldn't be satisfied if we could stop time at this or any other moment. Besides, we might miss what God planned for us just around the next bend.  It may be better than anything we've experienced in the past or present.  We might miss the invigoration of a fresh challenge or a hurdle to leap over.
    Sometimes the Lord saves the best wine until the last!
    In any case, we don't have a choice.
    As human beings we are temporarily locked into earth's time frame. The clock ticks on until one day we step over into a thrilling eternal dimension where "time shall be no more."
    TODAY is the best day for the child of God!  The choicest moment is right now.  The Lord must have something special in mind to keep us hanging around on planet Earth.
    We've already lived our yesterdays! Thanks for Your generosity, God!
    We don't  know about our tomorrows. We trust You with them, Lord!
    So today is the only time for which we are accountable. We have the awesome opportunity to live it totally for Jesus.
    May God help us not to let today slip through our fingers without living it up and celebrating life to the fullest. We may still have time to be faithful stewards of the rest of our lives.
    LIFE MAY BE CROWDING US. But we have NOW!  And we may still, through the generosity of God, have the opportunity to add more of life's pages in full color in the days and years ahead.

Postscript

What gives significance to this book is that I wrote it the year I was recovering from major lung cancer surgery and just before the sudden death of my husband the very year this book was published.  The "more of life's pages yet" about which I hardly dared to speculate above--given the circumstances I faced--have so far turned out to be twenty-seven years. Let us Celebrate each day as a loving gift from God and let Him do the counting of how many years He has planned for each of you who reads these words.

Below is the flagship poem from the book title, page 64.  Listen to Leona reading it on CD--in her more youthful voice!

 Life- Stop Crowding Me!

Life, stop crowding me!

I can't keep up with you.

I want to stop and enjoy

what I've become

and grown into

but you keep pushing me

faster and faster.

I want to pause and savor

the luscious flavor

of what I've waited for

worked for, hoped for

but you never allow me

the costly luxury

of cementing the moment

I've achieved.

You jostle me too swiftly

to the next stage

the new role

the greater struggle

the higher level

the fresh experience

before I'm finished with this one.

Just let me catch my breath

and take a look around

to see what I have found.

No such luck!

It's best for me, I guess

not to be sedated

with all of earth's success

but to be impelled

to keep motivated

forced forward

provoked higher

propelled onward

accelerated

to stretch my pace

and run life's race.

Otherwise--

I'd tend to spend my time

sitting beside the road of life

resting and complacent

appeased and pleased

but wasting away

to my own dismay

accomplishing nothing more.

Yes, I'd smell the roses

but in a placid daze

basking in the sun

instead of pressing on

and burning out

in a beautiful blaze!

Phil. 3:12-14

BITE-SIZED GENEROSITY

God didn't have to do it that way when He put Planet Earth's creation design in orbit. Instead of 24 hour days, “there was evening and there was morning, one day,” (Genesis 1:5) He could have established longer time segments for humans, animals and vegetation. He could have ordained an earthly orbit of the sun to give us several days of daylight in succession in which to labor and stretched to several nights in a row for our renewal in sleep.

In His wisdom and concern for our mortal frailty and our need for more frequent physical and mental restoration, God decreed our living time to be portioned to us in 24 hour bite-sized segments called days. Each morning we have another fresh new day in which to start over, and He supplies us with renewed strength to encounter it! That's really all we can handle at a time, right?

What a generous provision! No matter how badly we may have failed or come short yesterday, God gives us a clean, fresh today. “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness” (Lam.3:22,23).

When the Israelites in their trek out of Egypt were supplied by God with manna to eat, He gave it strictly on a daily basis. “And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating.”

Psalm 130:6 “My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.”
1 Chron. 23:30 “And to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at evening.”
Psalm 5:3 “In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait expectantly.”

Psalm 59:16 “But I will sing of Your strength, in the morning I will sing of Your love; for You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.”

Psalm 90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”

Psalm 143:8 “Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life.”

In gratitude for God's gift of each new day, can we do less than entrust the day to Him and let the Holy Spirit edit the hours according to the will of God?

FRESH START

Leona Choy

Another untainted day!

Lord, I'm overwhelmed

with Your munificence

to provide for me so generously

from Your stockpile of time

with a fresh start

each new dawn

regardless of the way

I blew yesterday.

God is in my now

this moment His

and His this day

so I must turn

from yesterday

and not expect

to live in retrospect

looking over my shoulder

to see either ghosts

or a pleasant memory.

God is in my now

so all of daily life

is holy ground

each duty crowned

as a royal moment

by the presence of The King.

My burning bush

is my present state

where God speaks to me

in the present tense

saying, “I AM” here.

Because He lives eternally

I can celebrate now!

On this delightful thought

I meditate

and find my joy today!

DILEMMA OF THE DOORS

IN OUR DAILY LIVES WE ARE CONSTANTLY ENCOUNTERING DOORS.

Some are open and we freely walk through presuming God is leading us. Other doors seem closed and we aren't sure what to do about them. If the door is locked, we could break the front door down and barge in—to our peril. Or we could look for another way to get in—a side door, back door or a window. However, that's dangerous—we may be mistaken as intruders.

There are entrances that don't have an actual material door, like the entry to a sheepfold in Jesus' analogy. It was simply an opening in a circle of stones or some sort of barrier across which the shepherd himself would lie across at night to prevent his sheep from sleep walking and snarling wolves from sneaking their way in to do harm. The shepherd was the door. Jesus claimed that He as the Good Shepherd is the door. (John 10:9) He warned against those who would attempt illegitimate ways of entry.

There are doors that confuse us because they seem to be swinging or rotating doors. We enter as if to walk through but as we walk we find ourselves rotating around and ending up outside again. Were we mistaken that the door was open?

Some doors are double and triple bolted and barred and guarded by security people.

These are No Trespassing doors. Let's not even approach them. Usually they are clearly marked so we don't have any excuse to mistake them.

Other doors are warm and friendly and we are entrusted with a key so that we can go in and out at will like family.

It isn't easy in our daily Christian walk to discern how best to deal with particular doors. Moreover, the Holy Spirit's guidance is unique to each of us and specific to situations. We need to pray for wisdom to recognize God's leading in any given circumstance. We like friendly doors where a WELCOME mat makes the decision for us. Rotating doors give us pause since we thought we were meant to go in but we find ourselves on the outside again. 
By all means we don't want to trespass anywhere God has clearly forbidden us. Let's not break a door down that God didn't mean for us to enter. The Lord did endow us with free will so we may actually attempt to do that sometime to our humiliation. However, there are God-guided occasions when even breaking through a roof is permissible. (Mark 2:4,5)

We are instructed to knock and ask and seek (Matthew 7:7) and not attempt forced entry. If God has planned for us to enter a certain door or escape through one, neither “four squads of soldiers, double chains, and guards in front of the door” (Acts 12:6) can keep a door from opening, nor can any man shut it. We are familiar with some doors in medical or office buildings that automatically open to us as we approach them with no effort on our part. God doesn't intend to confuse us with closed doors but delights in opening the right doors for us at the right time. (Rev. 3:8; Acts 14:27) In the case of the apostle Peter incarcerated in prison (Acts 12:10) an angelic event occurred whereby “an iron gate opened for them by itself.”

How about the doors we are encountering today? Would the bottom line of our dilemma of the doors be to simply trust and obey what we are instructed by Jesus Himself? “Knock....” That is, PRAY. Let's knock in faith trusting in the goodness of the Lord that He will give us enough light upon our path to know how to deal with a specific door. And then listen to God's reply to our knock and follow His directions.

RE-CALIBRATING MY DAY

I believe in signs, whether they are man-made or God's invisible direction signals. One of the most vocal and visual signs 

is posted at railroad crossings.

Here we find wise life and death traffic advice and also hidden spiritual implications. The material consequence, if the sign is obeyed, prevents you from being mangled to death with your vehicle when run down by an unexpected speeding train.

The spiritual consequences of not heeding this advice have repercussions for our well-being as Christians and the quality of our daily walk with the Lord.

I find that during any given day, as the hours tick by, my life sometimes begins to feel increasingly scattered in many directions. There are times when I feel fragmented, disintegrated. Everyone seems to want a piece of me and I don't have enough to go around. I have so many things on my plate that it is heaped high. Like the pieces of a puzzle, my day, my life needs to be assembled together again with care. “Recollected” is a good word for my need, with the emphasis being on re-collected. All the fragments need gathering up into some order. That's where the above sign's message comes in with good advice.

STOP! That comes first. I simply have to stop whatever I'm doing and take stock of my situation. Put on the brakes. Let my interior engine idle. Stop the noise, the dissonance, and embrace the silence so that I can think clearly. I shouldn't go any further, cross any lines, make any decisions until I'm re-collected and put back together again—something Humpty Dumpty couldn't accomplish even with all the help of his military entourage. Only when I'm still can I know how far off course I may have drifted.

LOOK! Look around. Look both ways to see whether I've taken on too much or have been put upon by others. Who has dished out all the things on my plate? Am I following God's orders or my own inclinations and plans? Is the enemy of my soul pushing me in every direction to distract me from my God-given trajectory for my day and for my life? I need to open my eyes to see what is happening to me.

LISTEN! After I've taken the above two actions, it's time to listen. I need to tune out the static that interferes with a clear audio signal from God. In this more tranquil state I can finally begin to focus on priorities, discern between what's important and what is just the tyranny of the urgent. Here is where God can whisper to me and point out what unneeded barnacles are clinging to my life and how to detach them from me.

Perhaps I need to take action on this spiritual exercise more than once a day, if I feel what is called “discombobulated”—a strange but descriptive word for being bewildered and unable to think straight. We all know that feeling at times. Like being disoriented or lost in a maze or caught off balance. There are times when we may need to take a whole day off to catch up with ourselves and reset our course. This is especially important when I'm facing some critical decisions and need clarity of mind and certain direction from God. STOP-LOOK-LISTEN is the key.

When using a GPS while driving and inadvertently making a wrong turn or failing to follow the voice or visual instruction of our device, we need to re-calibrate. To admit our error, start again, and follow the instructions to a new course to arrive at our desired destination.

When I hear God's still small voice in the quiet of my STOP—LOOK—and LISTEN experience, and if I don't heed His voice but persist in forging ahead in my overheated, impatient state, I will pay a price with the consequences. I will get run over with the speeding train of life. God has made a way of escape for us: There is safety in BELIEVING IN SIGNS.