What the what kind of cryptic title is THAT?
OK,
today's blog really came to me a few days ago as I was having my quiet
time, but I needed to really mull things over before I put my thoughts
down on paper. You know when you stumble over something that is kind of
epic, and it's ramifications in your life are so great that you just
want to get it right before you write it down?
Well, the last few days have been me trying to get it right.
I still don't know if I have it right, but here goes!
The verse I read was:
Psalms 15:5-7:
The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my
cup: it is thou that wilt restore my inheritance to me. The lines are
fallen unto me in goodly places: for my inheritance is goodly to me. I
will bless the Lord, who hath given me understanding: moreover, my reins
also have corrected me even till night.
The
context of this verse, when they are talking about "lines" are the
boundary lines of a pasture. It is talking as though whomever is saying
it is a horse, or an oxen, or the like, who is in a pasture and who is
content with the boundaries of the pasture. In the last sentence, the
horse or oxen is even grateful for the reins of instruction, the reins
imposed upon it by a loving Master who is guiding it with reins.
So, what does this mean to me?
Well, lots, actually.
How
many times in my past have I been ungrateful for the body that was
given to me as a gift? This body which processes every extra calorie by
turning it into fat and laying it down in my fat cells? How many times
in the past have I lamented that I can't be like so-and-so who doesn't
have the physical limitations that I seem to have in what I can eat or
can't eat?
What I have learned in this last 3 years, through the
process of changing my wants, through the process of reading Dr. A's
Habits of Health and adopting them incrementally because of all the
awesome things those habits would bring INTO my life (instead of viewing
it as one big deprivation/diet type thing), is that my body and the
caloric limitations that exist upon it ARE my boundary lines. They ARE
the lines of my pasture. And I needed to learn contentment, even a
sense of thankfulness FOR them, not RESENT and DEPLORE them.
Whew!
What? A grateful, peaceful, thankful heart for my physical
limitations? For this body that until I figured out how to change my
mind about this process (thank you Dr. A!) was like a curse to me? Was a
source of supreme unhappiness and sorrow?
Yes. In a word, yes.
I
view this lifestyle, my new normal, my caloric limitations, my choice
to live WITHIN those limitations and still have an abundant, full,
happy, joyful, peaceful, fruitful life, as me living out that verse.
I
am not staring at the neighboring pasture's grass, and pining for it
because it looks a little greener. No. I have my OWN grass and it is
MY grass WITHIN the boundaries of my pasture. And I am thankful for
it. My reins of instruction are the self-discipline, the
self-management so to speak, that I have HAD to develop if I wanted to
live the life I desired within the limitations of my pasture boundaries.
Or,
conversely, I could always continue ramming my head against the stone
boundary wall, mad that I couldn't have the greener grass in the
adjacent pasture. No, I chose not to do that.
So, I thank God
for my pasture. I thank God for my grass. I thank God for the lines of
my pasture, and I will be content within them. AND live the optimally
healthy life that I choose to live.
Whew. I hope I got that right. It makes sense to me, anyway!
Rinse and Repeat!
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