Changing You

As I sit here working on a project that the Lord has placed in my heart, I believe he gave me something for this blog.  Today I want to talk about change.

As many of you know, I used to weigh 350 pounds.  I lost a lot of weight and am certainly a different man today.  I am so thankful to God that he got me from where I was to where I am.  But there was a part of that journey that really hit home to me this morning.

See, I was like most people who have weight issues.  I tried every diet that I could think of and most more than once trying to loose weight but I couldn't do it.  I tried Atkins (more than once before it actually worked).  I tried counting calories.  I even tried some 30 year old three day diet that my boss had.  None of them worked.  Here is the hardest part.  Every time I started one of those diets, I would make it a point to tell everyone that I was going on the diet.  I would start all of them with good intentions.  When we went out to eat, I would eat whatever was on the diet of the day.  I could normally stick with it for at least a few days.  Occasionally I would make it a week or two before I fell off the wagon.

I was also the king of starting a diet "tomorrow" or "next week."  I would even tell my friends this.  Several times I would decide right before Thanksgiving that I was going on a diet.  I was married then and my ex-wife's family had a massive gathering at our house.  Now they always brought that good Paula Dean kind of food.  I recently heard someone say that she wasn't a chef because of what she cooked.  Well if you are from the south, you know that her food will put a smile on your face that Ajax won't take off.  Lynn's family always had the best turkey and dressing with all the trimmings plus the best homemade desserts in the world.  Now obviously I couldn't really start a diet on that day so it was always going to start the day after Thanksgiving.  It never did.

Eventually, I think my friends and family refused to believe me when I said I was starting a diet.  They had good reason not to believe based on what they were seeing from me.  After all, I never kept my word about the diet.  Not once.  So most people didn't believe me.

One day, I told my trainer JC (no not Jesus Christ - but maybe I should start more training with Him) I was going on a diet.  He told me something that still resonates with me today.  Now I pay my trainer to train me and I am certainly not used to people I pay talking to me in this manner but he was right.  He said, "Tommy, you are full of sh*&.  Don't ever lie to my face again about dieting.  When you get tired of being fat, you won't be fat anymore and you won't have to tell anyone.  They will know."  He was exactly right.

I never told anyone I was going on a diet again.  As I started losing weight, people would notice and say something to me.  See, I didn't have to work to get someone to see what I wanted them to.  I just did it and they saw the result.

I said all that to say this.  When you get tired of whatever issue you are facing, go to God and ask for his help overcoming it.  The two of you will beat anything that you want to get rid of.  But many times when you make that decision, people won't get excited about it.  That's OK.  It's your vision for your life not theirs.  Don't worry about it.  Once you decide to change something, just cling to your decision with all your might.  I don't even think you need to tell anyone that you decided to change.  Just make the change and everyone else around you will see it.  And remember, God is right there to help you through any problem or area of life you want to change.  He won't do everything for you but he will supply what you need to change your life.

I want to encourage you today.  What area are you facing that you want to change?  Take it to God and get his direction.  Then just go about changing.  Don't tell anyone - just do it.  When the results are shown, people will see it.  But know this - You and God can overcome any challenge you face.  Well, once again, I have blogged myself happy.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Forgiveness

OK.  I have a confession to make.  I am writing this particular post for my benefit.  As you read it, I hope it helps you too.

Have you ever had one of those times when you really did something that you thought was wrong?  In the southern United States, we might say have you ever had one of those days where you showed yourself?  Well recently, I did something that I knew was wrong.  Now most people wouldn't consider what I did to be wrong but it was wrong to me and that's what matters in this case.  I did something I said I wouldn't do. At the very least I broke my word.  It was something that really bothered me for a while.

Now I did the right thing afterwards.  I went to the Lord and asked him to forgive me.  I was truly repentant meaning I didn't want to make the same mistake again.  Do you know what happened?  He forgave me immediately.  See his word says that if we confess our sins to him that he is faithful and just to forgive us.  He then takes the memory of our sin and puts it away.  If I had asked him five minutes later about the same sin, He would have purposefully forgotten what I was talking about and wouldn't discuss it.  Because in his mind that situation was over and done.  He didn't hold it against me.  To him it was as if the whole thing never happened.  Now if He is God, the ultimate judge and jury, and He forgave me, why is it I felt so bad for a few days and then why did the feeling bad go away?

Let me tell you my theory.  First of all, I believe you should be remorseful if you do something wrong.  I am not suggesting that we should just not care when we make a mistake.  That's not true.  The Lord will convict our spirits when we do something wrong.  The reason he does this is so we can repent and go the right direction.

So why did I feel so bad?  Punishment.  I think I needed to punish myself for what I did.  God didn't leave the condemnation on me, his conviction was gone as soon as I confessed what I did and asked for forgiveness.  I put all that one me.  And notice something else about what I did.  After a few days, I didn't feel bad anymore.  Today I wish I had done a few things differently but I don't feel bad about what I did anymore.  I mentally served my time.  I can also hear some of you getting upset because I don't feel bad now for doing something wrong.  I didn't say that I felt like it was right.  I just said stopped feeling bad.

So here is the thing.  I need to learn to forgive myself just as quickly as God forgives me.  Once I admitted I was wrong.  That should have been the end of the whole situation.  If God forgives me, I should forgive me too.

Let me ask you this.  When was the last time you did something "wrong"?  It may not be considered wrong to anyone else but you considered it to be wrong.  Did you ask God to forgive you?  If you did something to someone else, did you ask them to forgive you?  Now here is the real question.

Did you forgive yourself?

If you didn't, what are you waiting for?  Once you forgive yourself, forget it.  Try hard not to make the same mistake again but forget what you did.  It's over.  Sometimes that's easier said than done as I experienced recently but it is the right thing to do.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.