Over the past several months I’ve been seriously re-assessing my understanding of my Christian walk.  A number of things have happened to jar my complacency, and I have developed an ever growing hunger to really understand what it means when Jesus says “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b)

I started to share about this journey a couple of weeks ago and since then I’ve finished listening to Wayne Jacobsen’s “Transition” series, and am just finishing up his book “He Loves Me! Learning to Live in the Father’s Affection” and I am being deeply challenged, moved, and hugely encouraged.

So much of my faith has been based on religion – not hard to understand when yoou realize I  grew up as a traditional Baptist!

But religion keeps us as far from the heart of God as rebellion.  In fact, I’ll bet God prefers rebellion, because it’s at least usually honest, where religion is not.

Anyway, I’m very grateful for the fact that my training is going to soon be forcing me into longer and longer walks.  It will give me much more time to listen, study, and focus on walking this new path spiritually, while I train for the physical part of my marathon.

Can’t wait to see where it leads…

Happy walking!

Darlene

I love the discipline of  “breath prayers” and I use them often in my day to relax, refocus, and de-stress.  I’ve started using them at the beginning of my walking as a form of warm-up, too.

I like to “collect” prayers to use in different situations.  Of course, you don’t need special words or phrases to get God’s attention, but sometimes I need them to get MY attention focused in the right place.

I’ve been reading a series of books lately by a woman named Liberty Savard and I have been really blessed by some of her teaching on prayer.  I took some of her suggestions and created a breath-prayer exercise for the beginning of my walking.  I thought I’d post it here in case you’d like to use it, too:

1. As you inhale slowly, pray “I bind myself to God’s truth, authenticity and integrity“ – and really visualize yourself “inhaling Christ” as it were. Pause for a brief second or two and then
2. Exhale and pray “I loose myself from all falsehood, lies, and deception” and imagine those things leaving your body. Pause.
3. Inhale and pray “I bind my will, passions, and purposes, to the will, passions and purposes of God” visualizing yourself inhaling these properties. Pause.
4. Exhale and pray “I loose myself from false pretensions, selfishness, greed, and fear” and exhale those things from your life. Pause.
5. Inhale and pray “I bind my mind to the mind of Christ, to hear the thoughts, intents, and purposes of His heart ”. Pause.
6. Exhale and and pray, “I loose myself from wrong thinking, behaviour, and attitudes”. Pause.
7. Inhale and pray “I bind my feet to God’s path for me, and my hands to the special work He’s ordained for me to accomplish in His Kingdom”. Pause.
8. Exhale and pray “I loose myself from the strongholds of unmet needs, unresolved issues, and unhealed hurts”. Pause.

I have a feeling that a prayer like that throughout your day could vastly change the way you see things!

Happy walking!

Darlene

(PS – don’t you think that picture looks just like me?  LOL!  I don’t know who owns it, but it’s pretty cool!)

Still WAY too cold (-11°C /12°F ) , but I went out anyway (she da man!) I’m having trouble getting my Garmin to read my heart rate. It’s given me an average heart rate today of 61bpm. I wish I was in that kind of shape! I think the strap is actually too loose – probably made for a man. I’m going to shorten it, and then try again.

It did “beep” me through my workout, though, and I did an interval workout to get some more of this fat blasted off.   Woohoo.  Toes are still thawing out, but otherwise I’m feeling pretty good.

I thought I’d share what I’m listening to.  Last year I started listening to the Bible while I walked, and this year I’ve decided I want to go much deeper into the scriptures.  Here’s how I’m attempting to do it:

My walk is about an hour each morning. Last year  I set up a listening program based on Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System. I set up 10 playlists on iTunes based on his ten divisions, and I set up 7 playlists – one for each day of the week. I simply drag and drop a chapter from each of the 10 divisions into the day’s playlist. You get to explore the whole Bible each morning. Kinda cool. This takes about 30 minutes of listening time.  I use “The Word of Promise” dramatized version of the NKJV for the New Testament readings (interesting to listen to the drama – I like this!), and Max McLean’s NIV version for the Old Testament (tends to swing from dull to over-dramatized, but it works.  I don’t have the “Word of Promise” for the OT yet).

I also have a challenge this year to memorize the book of Ephesians using “An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture” by Dr. Andrew Davis.  Once the general Bible readings are over, I then listen to the whole book of Ephesians (I work on the actual memorizing before I go for my walk).  This takes about 15 minutes.

When that’s done I’m working through Dr. J. Vernon McGee‘s verse-by-verse study of the book of Ephesians for whatever verse I’m memorizing that day.  He’s kind of fun to listen to.  I don’t always agree with him, but it’s good to hear what he has to say.  This is anywhere from 5-10 minutes, and usually wraps up my walk.

When I get home, I work through one of  iTunesU’s university classes on Ephesians.  Currently I’m working through a course on Ephesians from Dallas Theological Seminary taught by Prof.  Ron Allen.  I want to get several theological perspectives on the book,so I’m listening to whatever I can find.

I’m also pulling out my Inductive Study Bible and I’m going to work through Ephesians with the Precept upon Precept study guide.

It will take me 7 months approx. to learn Ephesians at 6 verses a week, and I figure by the end of that time I’ll have a pretty solid working knowledge of the book.  I’ve never studied a single book to this extent, so it will be interesting to see how it works.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, go take a walk.  Your body will love you for it!

Darlene

To call me a “driven” person is an understatement (friends might use the term “scary”…) There’s something about my makeup that doesn’t allow me to tackle a day without to-do list of at least 30 items. I kid you not. There are always 27 different projects to work on, and I take my relationship with my kids and husband very seriously, so time needs to be set aside for that, as well. This means I live each day highly focused, and heaven help you if you get in my way when we’re not in “relationship” mode!

And there’s something about today’s society that makes this kind of lifestyle something to be deeply proud of. I mean whenever someone asks you how life is, “busy” and “stressed” seem to be appropriate, praise-worthy responses. Weird.

In my Monday’s Post I shared about the trip my husband and I took to Montana and the incredible sense of rest that it afforded us. My own faith stresses highly the importance of Sabbath.

This is an idea that has been buzzing around in my head and my heart for a long time. I actually do start each morning very slowly with time for devotions, praise, walking, and the like before I hit the ground running, but the idea of a whole day of Sabbath every week? That’s tough. Weekends are so short and so fully of “busy-ness” that it’s hard to figure out how to make it happen.

I believe more and more, though that it’s a vitally important part of true wellness, regardless of your spiritual beliefs – or lack of such. It takes some work to make it happen (that sounds like a contradiction in terms…) but the results are well worth it. Here are some links that you might find helpful (if you’re not religious, these ideas can be used as a starting place and be adapted to suit your own needs):

• Here’s a great sermon about the Sabbath from one of the Pastor’s at my church. This will give you some great, balanced teaching about the Sabbath to get you started.
• What is Sabbath? This site will help you explore the idea of Sabbath and offers some good questions and suggestions for getting started. There is also a section on this site specifically for kids, and some specific activities you can try out together as a family.
• Here are some more ideas for things you can do as a family on the Sabbath
• Here is a whole book of ideas put out by the Seventh Day Adventists: 100 Creative Ideas for Sabbath

Of course, you could also try going for a walk as a family (couldn’t miss the opportunity of saying that, now could I?

• You could check out this site for ideas for younger children, and this site has games and activities for the whole family.
• If your family is as dependent on iPods for life and sustenance as our family is, you can download this 99 cent app that creates a sort of treasure hunt while walking.
• You can even download a FREE copy of my “Kids are No Excuse” e-report that shows you lots of different ways to involve your kids with walking

So those are some ideas that can help you get started. I honestly don’t believe it matters what day you chose – pick a day that works best for everyone, and then fight to keep it sacred.

I’d be really interested in hearing your ideas about Sabbath and to have you share in anything you might have tried that works for you. Post your comments below.

Happy resting!

Darlene