Bloated

 

I feel bloated. Wonder why?

Could it be the huge bowl of Golden Grahams, with three cups of coffee and a Krispy Kreme donut?

Or the four slices of pizza at lunch?

Maybe the three large chocolate chunk cookies at mid afternoon, chased by three of those “fun-size” Hershey’s chocolates. How is small “fun-size?” How is feeling bloated and fat a good thing?

Dinner was irrelevant. White rice. Duck sauce packets left over from Chinese take-out. Costco egg rolls and dumplings.

One day like that is not so bad. Living like that in a +50 body whose arthritic knees and surgically disrepaired ankle make cardiovascular exercise much more unpleasant than it was even 5 years ago – well that’s a recipe for a doughy belly and double chin.

I can’t tell if writing it down makes it any better.

I know when I get to the point where I feel so oversized, I, even I, with my appetite, have absolutely no desire for any post-white rice dessert – at that point, I need to change something up.

So hard, change. Maybe tomorrow. I’ve been saying that since Thanksgiving. Maybe tomorrow.

I feel like I am becoming a chocolate chunk cookie.

Who Tells Your Story?

Who Tells Your Story?

February 2023

 

            The past few years, I have tried, through writing sermons and newsletter articles, to shape the Christian story for people who listen when I preach and read what I write. Through much of 2021, I looked at Biblical narratives in Haggai, Zechariah, and Deuteronomy that define the community of God as it is being established. In the former texts, the people of God were rebuilding after exile. In the latter, they were settling the Promised Land after wandering in the wilderness. I imagined us as a church rebuilding after being exiled in quarantine and wandering in the land of COVID. I envisioned people streaming back to church after COVID.

I think we did some good work in Haggai, Zechariah, and Deuteronomy in 2021, and I am glad we examined those passages. The problem is COVID did not leave, and people did not stream back to church in-person in droves the way I though they would. So, in 2022, I drilled down deep in the grand story of Christianity. I though it was the time for us to revisit our basic foundation as a people saved from sin, saved for a life in Christ. We spent considerable time in the book of Romans. The 2022 sermons at Hillside were a journey into core-Christian theology.

Just as I was pleased with the 2021 preaching in Haggai, Zechariah, and Deuteronomy, even though that effort didn’t align with the conditions envisioned because those conditions did not materialize as I figured they would, I was pleased with our journey in Romans. I’m glad half of the 2022 Hillside sermons were based on that book of the Bible.

In 2023, we’ll take a much different approach. I’m asking a simple question that I hope you will prayerfully, thoughtfully consider. Who tells your story?

Who tells your story?

            The ghost of your mother, whom you always disappointed?

            A fashion model, whose body you will never have?

            A neighbor who drives a nicer car than any you will ever own?

            A voice in your head that says you’ll never be enough? Never smart enough. Never attractive enough. Never accomplished enough.

            As you sit with this question introspectively and honestly, listen to another voice, the voice of your Heavenly Father. His message to you is you are beloved. However today goes, you are beloved. Wherever you succeed or fail, you are beloved.

            In the weekly sermons, we’ll pursue this theme throughout the Bible. We’ll look at a different text every week. We’ll hold different passages from the Gospels and the Old Testament up alongside each other. The messages will be theological and researched, for sure, but the driving question will be who tells your story? And our landing point will be God’s reassurance that you are beloved.

            I’m looking forward to this walking this path of faith with you in 2023.