Twenty Four and in control

Our church started a series of messages entitled "24" in which we're taking a look at the kind of life that is available to us 24/7. We borrowed the series title from the television series called "24" where each episode is an hour in the life of the main character. You can check out more about this series at Granger Community Church by clicking on this link www.gccwired.com.

Two weeks ago the weekend message was about how we so easily compartmentalize our lives. We have a box for family, a box for work, a box for our social life, a box for the multitude of other things going on in our life including a box for religion. We put the box for religion in the middle of all of the other boxes so that it appears we let God touch all areas of our lives when, in fact, what we're doing is just giving God a slot and allowing us to remain as the "majority stockholder." Appearance is everything, not.

The thing is though, is that God wants to be the bigest part of our life, surrounding all of it, not just a slot in the compartment. But we won't let him. Why, because often we think we know what we need better than He does.

I never really thought about whether I 'compartmentalized' my life too much until this past weekend at the gym......

I mentioned not long ago that a couple of months ago that Lori and I decided to join Anytime Fitness. It's open 24 hours (hence the name, duh!) so there is essentially no excuse to not be able to find time to workout. We have been going faithfully 6 days a week.

This past Friday I knew I wouldn't be able to go to the gym after work because we were having dinner with friends. However, I was too lazy to get up and go before work to compensate for the change in routine. Yes, I was breaking the 6 day rule and the bad thing that dinner was going to be at Hacienda. I knew that I wouldn't be able to resist the chips. And I didn't!

On Saturday's we've been getting to the gym about 7:15am and then going out for a bagel and coffee aftewards at Panera. But this particular Saturday, Lori seemed to be sleeping in longer than usual and she came downstairs about 6:15am.

We waivered back and forth for a few minutes on whether we could be showered and ready to go to the gym and still have breakfast by no later than 9:30. But we did. We walked out the door at 7:55.

So I'm thinkin' you're probably thinking by now, "who takes a shower before they got to the gym?" I don't wear hats and there is no way that I'm going out in public with bed hair! Now, back to the story.

We get to the gym and I am ready for this workout! I had already skipped a day and that was wackin' me out. On top of that, I pigged out on chips at Hacienda and was emersed in deep regret over that. I was ready to burn calories!

Not long after we started going regularily to "Anytime" I had mentioned to the owner/trainer that I was getting incredible side aches on the elliptical machine. She offered 2 pieces of advice: one solicited, one not. The solicited piece of advise was that I was probably going to fast and not breathing correctly which could be leading to my side aches. The unsolicited was that if I was going to fast and my heart rate was over the range that the machine said I should be within, I was burning muscle and not fat. Not that I'm a weakling (well I might be but let's not go there)but, I really don't have any muscle to be wasted!

Why is consistency such an issue with these confounded cardio machines? Why is it that one day I can go at a pretty good speed and stay within my heart rate and the next day my heart rate sky rockets and I have to go at a snails pace (or so it seems) to stay within the heart range. Stupid heart range!

Saturday morning was one of those "snail" days. At first it seemed like I was good to go. I was clippin' along at pretty good speed and my heart rate was within the range it should have been within. I was getting into the music on my IPOD and watching the TV in front of me. It was all good. I happened to look down and noticed my heart rate had rocketed way past where it should be. So I slowed way down to decrease my heart rate and ended up being stuck at that pace. I couldn't get my heart rate to stay down unless I keep my speed way down as well.

Is it possible to have "ellipitcal road rage" as I think I was about to have it. I wanted to go faster but was being restricted by the machine. I was convinced I needed to go faster because in my mind faster equated more calorie burn and more calorie burn means more fat loss. And I ate so wrong the night before. Why didnt this machine understand this?

I don't typically eat much beef nor fried food either. Saturday night we went out to dinner again to a place called "Between the Buns" and I ate food I wouldn't normally eat again. Yep, I scarfed down a burger and fries and didn't think twice about it. Off the deep end again on eating!

Sunday is the day we've decided to take off from going to the gym. But since I'd missed Friday I told Lori that I wanted to go on Sunday this week to make up for lost time.

Lori was the early riser on Sunday morning, at 5 am, and I didn't come wandering downstairs until 6:30. I told her I was pretty sure I wanted to go to the gym but she opted to stay home and clean the house and do laundry. I got ready and took off, all psyched up for a power work out.

I arrived at the very unpopulated gym (apparently a lot of other people take Sunday's off from working out too, at least at 7:30 am anyway) and took my place on an elliptical machine. I selected the cardio workout and started pedaling. I don't think I was on the blasted machine for more than 3 minutes when my heart rate was already over the top. How could this be? I wasn't in the mood to just "putt" along so I took control and switched over to manual. I took the and hand towel that I'd grabbed on my way in and covered up the display. I was going at the speed I wanted to go at today, and this machine wasn't stopping me.

I felt like I was going at a pretty good pace and that I was getting a good work out. About 30 minutes into the hour I had planned to be on the machine I decided to remove the towel and just see how outrageous my heart rate was from my decision to take matters into my control. I was surprised to see that was going along at a speed I thought was adequate and my heart rate was within the acceptable range.

If the machine could have spoke it would have said, "Ha Ha,I won. You can't cover me up and pretend I'm not there. I'm still in control even when you try to pretend I'm not."

Tieing all of this back to the message on comparmentalizing our lives, I wanted to control the machine and make it conform to what I wanted. I have to wonder where and when I do this same thing in other parts of my life, especially when it comes to my relationship with God, without even realizing it? Where do I try to hold onto control and only give God the corner of the box? Where do I think I know what's best for me?

But just like the elliptical machine that kept my heart rate within the healthy range it needed to be in, despite my attempts to take control of my life, God is really in control of it and He is caring for me even when I'm too selfish to realize it.