FORD Tough-- Part 4 Daily dying and rising

For some reason, my pickup keeps dying and rising. Almost daily it felt like. It'd die on my. I'd bring it into Grant, my mechanic, and then it's get back to working again. Only to die and rise again. Grant is an amazing mechanic and honestly, I want to see if I can take lessons from him on how to take care of my pick up.

Each time people ask me about my pick up, I keep having to admit that the blasted thing is younger than me and in need of repair. The engine's good. Don't get me wrong. The engine itself is in good working order, it's the seals and gaskets that are breaking down. Looking at the engine, it looks amazing, but it's what's on the inside I can't always see.

I've been talking about being FORD tough with FORD standing for "Fix or Repair Daily." (you can check out parts 1,2,and 3 if you'd like)Part of being FORD tough is acknowledging the need to constantly be fixed or repaired daily. Now here is how we can be fixed and repaired daily.

Step 1: Know that you can't do it yourself. Unless you're like the most perfect mechanic in the world and can just wave your hand and make it all fixed, then there's no way you can fix it yourself. No Haynes book in the world will help you. You need to rely on something else.

Step 2: Ask for help. There is the perfect mechanic (and no, it's not Grant, though he's good). Only the perfect healer can heal, only the one True Mechanic can fix and repair you. Come to Him for help. And be willing to receive his help.

Step 3: Be willing and ready to be repaired daily.

So, how can we do step 3? Stop hanging on, loose your life to gain it.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. Matthew 16:24-25

This is where some might get mad at me. It's more than just being good. It's more than just being strong willed, more than just standing firm against all odds, more than just having true grit, more than just being willing to take a beating. It's one thing to lay your life down for a cause for the greater good. Commendable, yes, but that's not being FORD tough. To be FORD tough is to not hang onto your life, but to give it up to Jesus instead to use it. And that is the hardest thing.

To be FORD tough, to live a life of being fixed or repaired daily means giving yourself completely and fully over to the One True Mechanic, the One True Physician, Jesus (yes, I said it) and then and only then can you truly be fixed or repaired daily.

If you've done this, given yourself over then be willing to daily stop hanging on to your old self, the past mistakes, the mess-ups, the cracking seals and gaskets, and daily allow the One True Mechanic to repair you.

If you haven't...come, be repaired daily...

FORD tough--Part 3 Picking it up

You ever have it where you're just so blasted tired. I am right now. Been a busy few weeks. I haven't been to the gym since Thursday. I've had WAY too much pizza (of course, can you ever have TOO much pizza?) and way too many sweets (and yes, you CAN have way too many sweets). For me, being healthy is a daily thing. It's a daily choice I have to make. Some days I'm better at it than others. Recently, I've been pretty bad at it (ate half a container of Pillsbury Cream Chocolate frosting..good yes, but went straight to my thighs). But it's a daily thing. Some days are better than others, but you have to move forward each time at it. Each day get up and move forward. Each day pick yourself up out of bed, lift up your body, and take those steps forward to be healthy. And it's so stinkin' hard!

On days like this, I so don't want to be FORD tough. On days like this, I so don't want to even think about being fixed or repaired daily. Just give me a root beer, a chili dog, and some football or even the Blackhawks and I'll be okay. Let me watch The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or even some cool Jackie Chan flick, (I'd even go for Bulletproof Monk right now) and just peal me off the couch at the end of the day. That'd be so great..right?

I mean, I try. I try hard. I do my best.

And then I think of these words:

There is do or do not, there is no try.

Thank. You. Yoda.Spiritually (and yes, this is Spiritual Musclehead) I think it's the same thing. No, I know it's the same thing. We need to be fixed and repaired daily. Part 1 and Part 2 looked at the reasons why. And it ain't pretty to say the least. But it's true.

Now, this is where you might disagree with me, and feel free to, but just listen anyway:

Jesus is the way to be repaired. Jesus says that if we want to be repaired daily, we need to follow him. What does this look like?

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever looses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." Mark 8:34-35

Duuuuuuuuuddde... that's some tough stuff.

So, do you really want to be repaired daily? It's a daily commitment to do this. There is do or do not, there is no try. Do you want to be repaired daily and made closer to God in the process?

What do you think it looks like to do this daily?

FORD Tough--Part 2 Beginning repairs

Just a quick update. My pickup is once again in the shop. Yes. That's right. Back in the shop. It's a small cracked seal. Easy cheap fix, right? Wrong. It's a seal that's right near the transmission. In order to get to the seal, the transmission has to be removed. In order to remove the transmission, you have to open up the engine all together. I'm also worried that this blog on being healthy is going to start being a blog bemoaning my pickup. And I get ribbed because it's a Ford (Fix or Repair Daily they tell me). Well, I want to be FORD tough.

Being FORD tough is hard. It takes a lot of work. So many times we think we're dealing with a simple problem. We think, "Hey, it's just leaking oil. No big whoop. Just need to tighten the cap on the oil pan." We look at the symptoms and think that all we need is just a little fix.

I think we do that in life sometimes too. We look at the symptoms and think that all we really need is a little fix. Just some extra effort here, a little bit of work there. But in all honesty. I think we need to honestly look at ourselves.

I came across a blog that has really hit home for me. It's called Fat Girl,Fit World. Her latest blog post reflected what I've had to realize about myself. She said that it's hard to see yourself for you you really are. And that's so true.

And I've had to come to a realization that my pickups messed up too. It's a classic. It's great. And it's falling a part. So, how is this being FORD tough? When you're FORD tough, you have to constantly understand that you're in need of fixing and repairing daily. You have to actually admit it. And that's hard. This is called "confessing" something that I talked about at the end of Part 1 of being FORD tough.

To be FORD tough is to admit that you're not perfect, that you are going to make mistakes and you need to forgive yourself of your mistakes, and ask others to forgive you as well. But it's hard to do so. Being FORD tough means you understand you need help in this area.

I like these words

Praise the LORD , O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. Psalm 103:2-3

We have other words on forgiveness--forgiving each other, forgiving ourselves. We have the truth that is given to us. I love to hear these words from Jesus

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

The truth is: My pick ups busted. The truth is: I can't fix it myself but need help from Grant at Select Services here in town.

The truth is: We make mistakes and need help accepting them. The truth is: There's only one person who can truly help us do this.

The truth is, there's a great way to be repaired.

What mistakes do you need to accept? What are things you need to forgive yourself for?

FORD Tough--Part 1 Finding the Problem

My brother recently told me that Ford stood for "Fix or repair daily." This is in reference to my pickup's last two issues (for my further whining, please click here and here). I'm starting to wonder if he's correct. On Facebook, I even posted this idea of Ford meaning "fix or repair daily" and I had a lot of Ford-haters comment on it (yeah, you know who you are!)Now, I'm not a Ford-hater. In fact, I don't pick one type of pick-up over the other at all. But I at least want a working one.

Now, this got me to thinking. This being a blog called Spiritual Musclehead and all, I wanted to dive a bit deeper into this. In order to fix or repair something, you need to know what the problem is in the first place. If you're oil's leaking, just putting more oil in it every other day isn't going to fix the problem, just alleviate the symptoms for a while. You need to find the deeper problem.

What about us? What about us human beings. I think we need to be fixed and repaired daily to tell the truth. I'm not okay. That's for sure. Everyone who knows me knows that as much. And to tell the truth, I really think that we're all not okay in one way or another.

So, you need to be fixed and repaired. Why? I have a one word answer for you but you're not going to like it: Sin. There, I said it. I know. I don't like that word either.

Let me ask you this though: If you're leaking oil something fierce in your engine, would you keep driving it like everything was okay? Or would you want to have it fixed? In fact, if you say that the oil leaking is going to cause an engine problem, that works for you, but I'm fine just pouring more oil in it. Are you deceiving yourself? If you keep doing it, yes, you can go for a while, but eventually the engine will fail (this is from experience--blew out an engine because of this. Huge stinking hole in it too..not pretty)

So, what do we do? Be fixed and repaired daily. Problem: oil leak. Solution: fix it.
Problem: Sin. Solution: Be repaired

Problem and solution:

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives...But if anyone obeys Jesus’ word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 1:7-10, 2:5)

So what does it mean to confess? And confess what?