Four Years of Fitness Logging

Note: The material here has been incorporated and enlarged into my comprehensive Training Program and Principles, as well as my thoughts on the Spirituality of Physical Training. 

The last time I blogged about Fitness in 2014, I had just started my journey back to health. I have learned a great deal since then, and figured it was time to share some of that.

I will only toot my own horn if it helps others, so perhaps this will help someone. Today I have logged my meals for 3 years straight, 1095 days in a row, on MyFitnessPal. It would be 4 years in a row, but my Mission Trip in 2015 broke my 1 year streak. In these 4 years, I have gone from 330 lbs to 275 lbs (I still have 25 lbs to go to get to my goal of 250 lbs). With that loss of 55 lbs, I have gained muscle mass, and my 5 rep max lifts are at 285 for bench, 205 for overhead press, 325 for front squat, and 425 for deadlift. And beyond that, I generally feel healthy and energetic and comfortable in my own skin. 

What’s my point in this bragging? My point is that you can do it too. Your goals may be different. They may be running or swimming or CrossFit or whatever. But you can do it, with self discipline that comes from the grace of God. It may not come dramatically or quickly (it sure hasn’t for me), but it will come. I’m a very busy married guy with three active kids and a demanding job. And if I can do it, you can do it. 

The Möbius Strip and The Holy Trinity

The history of discussions about the Holy Trinity is littered with dead analogies and metaphors which fail to do justice to the God they are trying to represent. The hallowed Ice-Water-Steam analogy ends in the heresy of Modalism. Patrick's Three Leaf Clover inevitably leads to Unitarianism. The "mother who is a daughter who is a wife" analogy leads to Modalism yet again, while the analogy of "three men who share a common human nature" leads to Polytheism. The Triangle is too impersonal, whereas Augustine's analogy of Lover-Beloved-Love seems too personal, and makes the Trinity seem to be three separate consciousnesses. We could also heap up "1x1x1=1", or "Thinker-Thinking-Thought", or "Giver-Giving-Gift", or one Person as "Mind-Heart-Will", or one Family as "Father-Mother-Child", on the pile of analogies that are too inaccurate or mundane to be definitive examples of the Trinity.

All fail. All fall apart. None fully conveys, or captures, the Mystery of the Trinity. Like I saw online the other day: The Trinity is a Mystery, not a Puzzle.

And yet. And yet!

The opposite end of over-explaining is under-explaining: The Trinity is a Mystery we cannot understand, so don't even try. Just affirm it and go about your life. Keep calm and don't think too much.

The Trinity grounds Inclusion

To be inclusive, one must have something or someone to include people into. And for that inclusion to be “good” we must include people into something that brings abundant life and full human flourishing. It is not enough to include people into communities or families. Street gangs, prisons, cartels, and Nazis all form strong communities. We must ask what greater good— what God— is served by those communities, and if that God is worthy of worship. That God could be racial identity, profit making, power acquisition, or even some version of “God” itself. But how do you define the God you include people into? 

Is the Letter to the Hebrews adoptionist?

A friend recently asked me if Hebrews 1.1-4 is "adoptionist". Adoptionism is an early Christian heresy which states that Jesus was not fully God and fully human during his entire Earthly life. Rather God "adopted" Jesus as the Son of God at his Baptism, when the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus and filled him with Divinity. Jesus was then "un-adopted" on the Cross, when he died and gave that Divine Spirit back to the Father. This idea raises serious questions for Incarnational and Trinitarian theology. For instance, God does not become fully and truly human from the womb to the tomb in the Adoptionist scheme. 

Rather, God kind of "joy rides" Jesus of Nazareth for the "good" parts of his life, treating him like a Divine puppet, and then abandoning him at the time of greatest need on the cross. If this is the case, then not all of human life is redeemed and integrated into the life of God, just the "adult part" of life, until life gets hard as we near death. That is not full salvation for humans. And for God, it is not full empathy nor full solidarity with the human situation. For the Incarnation to be real and meaningful, it must include the entire human life, from the womb to the tomb and beyond. Thus, for these and many other reasons, the Church has rightfully rejected Adoptionism.

Praying Psalm 87 for Jerusalem

With the ongoing unrest in Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians, I have struggled to find a prayer to pray for them. Both sides are wrong. Both sides are right. Both sides have performed atrocities. Both sides deserve a safe and prosperous place to live. But how to pray through this on any given day is extremely difficult.

So, over the last few years I have found myself praying Psalm 87. It is a beautiful vision of Jerusalem (i.e. Zion in this Psalm), in which the City is the epicenter of God's blessing upon all peoples. Zion is elected by God as the chosen City, that it may draw all peoples into those blessings and bring them a genuine relationship with the Living God. God's election is never an election to privilege, but an election to use one's privilege to share God's blessings with all.

Ascension and Graduation

Jesus said "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as the disciples were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. [Acts 1.8-10]

May 10 is the Feast of the Ascension. As a chaplain, this is an incredibly appropriate feast for the end of the school year, since this was Jesus’ graduation. He passed the final exam of the crucifixion with the perfect score of the resurrection. He graduates summa cum laude and immediately climbs the ladder to the highest position in the universe, sitting at the right hand of the Father to direct the work of his Body, the Community of Disciples, and empower them with his Spirit.