Starting January 24, 2009 - Weigh Less to Feed More

The challenge begins! If you are participating in the local program here in Phoenix welcome! If you are participating in this program from some remote place with a laptop and the internet as your connection to us, welcome! 

First thing is first. If you say you are in, are you in?? What I am asking you to do is count the cost. New year brings the rush of possibilities for new things. Great! We can work with that. But before you go jumping in make sure you have taken some time to get quite and ask God for his guidance and leadership. Maybe it has been a while since you have talked to God, maybe you have never really talked to him much about your health and asked some deeper questions as to what the "weight" is all about. Maybe you have never talked to God and you just want to sit back and watch this thing unfold. You are welcomed to stay, but I am asking you to hold a space for the possibilities of what God has to say about all of you. He created you, he ought to know best where all the parts go. I have a t-shirt that says "Jesus is my personal trainer." And he is! So take some time to get quite in this next week and slooooow down or just begin the conversation with God asking him to help you count the cost. In other words are you really ALL IN! 

In Matthew 14 Jesus talks about he cost of being a disciple. Now don't go old church on me here by thinking "Disciple? Me?Oh, here comes the holier than thou...Someone find my halo."  A disciple is not a perfect being. It doesn't mean you hold some secret membership into a a special club where you GET to be someone special. A disciple is someone who says they are choosing to do things differently. To swim against the current. According to the global statistic that more people are overweight and suffering from ill health than people who are hungry in the world says something as to the way things are going. They are going in the wrong direction. A disciple choses to put his/her foot down and stand for justice, love, mercy, grace, hope and creative possibilities that come from the Creator of all things. Jesus came to show us a better way. As disciples we follow Jesus. That's it.  And often times we will be asked to go the other way. The way that is opposite from the direction everyone else is going.  And this can be very uncomfortable.

In verse 33 Jesus says "any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." Giving up everything means we are all in!  And isn't that where we all start the new years, especially when it comes to making change. But as soon as we feel compromised or uncomfortable we say "It is just not worth it." And we turn back. We return to the old ways. So are you all in? Are you ready to follow a better way?  That is where I need you and more so God needs you in the next 8 weeks so that true and lasting transformation can begin to take root.  Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. On the other side of your discomfort is the better way. 

Questions to chew on:

1. What is weighing me down? (remember, this isn't a weight issue in pounds, but in burdens, hardships, hurts, pains, etc)

2. What has kept me from change?

3. Why am I ready now?

4. What price am I willing to pay?