Browncoats and sloth

(Today’s Spiritual Sci-Fi Friday is a guest post from an old friend and colleague of mine, Mike Van Boom. He’s a pastor of a great church up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and a fellow sci-fi geek like me.)

The Firefly universe is an interesting one. It paints a picture of a future for humanity in a distant solar system. There, the central government exerts dictates its authority over each populated system. Interestingly, a major project the government undertakes there is to eliminate sin in humankind. It dreams of eliminating evil impulses and aggressive behavior within humanity. So it settles a planet on which to work its great experiment. The Government then releases a drug designed to reduce the aggressive impulses of people.

What happened?

The drug worked for the most part. For 95% of the population, all will to fight or pursue violence ceased. Unfortunately, that meant that people stopped “fighting” altogether. They stopped coming to work. They stopped caring. They stopped fighting for life to the point where they even stopped breathing. They just laid down and died.

The other 5% of the population… Well let’s just say they became a living nightmare. All their aggressive tendencies were magnified to the point of a reckless horror.

Consider the lesson in this Science Fiction parable.

God created people with the ability to “fight,” and that “fight” is a requirement to go on living. The opposite you might say is sloth. Sloth is considered one of the seven deadly sins; and it points in the direction of surrender; the loss of ability to fight for what is important. The corresponding virtue is Diligence; Hard work; Effort.

God wants to raise His people to new life; and one aspect of that is the ability to fight; to work hard; to be diligent; and to persevere in the face of challenges. Ask God to do that work in you!

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Everyone who competes in games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

One year and 20lbs later

It's been a year. I've been attempting this blogging thing for a year. You'd think that the progress I had made at this time last year, I'd be all covered with muscles by now. Or at least that's what I had thought. Last year around this time I was within moments of reaching my weight loss goal. In fact, I surpassed it by May.

And then I gained 30lbs.

Lost 10lbs...then gained some back.

Yeah.

But along the way, I learned much about myself, about what I don't know, and the importance of being healthy regardless of the awesomeness that would have been my biceps.

Last year, around this time, people had noticed my weight loss and how much healthier I was looking. I kept getting asked how I did it. So, I finally decided to write a blog about it. Oh, I thought I was the bees-knees on this one.

And so I wrote my first blog post. I had great dreams about what this blog would be like. And I was wrong. I struggled with what to say, how to say it, how I wold come across. Then I found the blog Stuff Christians Like. Reading it helped me see that I needed to be honest with myself in my blog, explore my own failures as well as my own successes and to look at what all made up being a Spiritual Musclehead.

I was focusing too much on the exercise part, not enough on the rest. Sometimes I look too much at the spiritual and not at the physical nor emotional. But each needs some time. Each needs attention paid to it to be healthy.

And now, a year later, there are 8 official followers (thank you all) and readership from around the world--Thank you to those in Russia, Hungary, China, Germany and US and Canada who read.

But one thing I do stick by, and I'll say it again. There is no quick fix. My secret is a simple 4 step process
1. Hard work
2. Prayer
3. Perseverance
4. Patience

I still have to remind myself of these from time to time.

How's your life going as a Spiritual Musclehead?