As some of you may have noticed, I have lost some weight over the summer, and I just wanted to share a little bit about how and why.  Over the last year, every time I had to get on a plane, I noticed that the seats seemed to be getting steadily a lot smaller, and the belts a lot shorter.  Therefore, I wasn’t looking forward to the long plane ride to Kenya, where I could only imagine how uncomfortable it might be.  Fortunately, the Air Emirates seats were a little wider and the belts a little longer, so it wasn’t that much of a problem.  However, when I arrived in Kenya, and then proceeded to Ichuga village, Scott Fahringer, Pattianne Heizler, and me were asked to do visitation in and around the village.

When I mean, in and around, I think that we must have up and down a number of hills that rivals the hills of Pittsburgh.  One of the elders that I was with noticed me huffing and puffing, as well as sweating like a pig.  He gently commented that perhaps for my health and my longevity, I should go on a Kenyan diet, which consisted of doing a lot of walking, and eating a lot of fruit.  The fact, Peter Maina was 65 years old and could walk up these hills like a teenager.  It made me think that maybe I wasn’t too old to try.  However, my fear, like with all dieters, is that I wouldn’t stick to it and would just eventually give up.

It reminded me of a passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

God has a plan for each one of us, and there is a time and a season that he enables us to work on those things in our lives that to not bring glory to him or that prevent us from fully enacting His glorious and wonderful will.  In other words, I thought that if it was God’s will to give me the strength and motivation to work on my weight and health, then He would enable me to do so.  In the same way, as we all seek greater sanctification (becoming more like Christ), God in Christ enables us to work on those various struggles in our lives at a time and in a season that is appropriate to His will.  Our responsibility is to stay attuned to when and how God is calling us to begin.  I am not saying that this is the first time God called me to begin trying to lose weight and to get into shape, but it is the first time in a while that I opened myself to hear and understand His calling, especially as I was struggling to fit myself into the plane seats, as well as lumbering up and down those Kenyan hills.  Many of us, if not all of us, have our own struggles that no one knows about except ourselves. 

Often times we will even go to God in Christ and ask for help in overcoming them, and wonder to ourselves why God doesn’t seem to want to respond.  The better understanding would be, are we hearing God when he does respond, or are we saying with our mind, I want to change, but in our hearts, I want to stay the same?  Are we ready to change, and is this the time and season that God has deemed we are ready to change?

I can share with you that this past September, when my family and I flew to Maine, I was apprehensive about the plane ride.  But, I can only offer praise to the Lord that the seat was plenty wide and the belt was easily snapped shut, and even more revealing was that the individuals that had to sit beside me didn’t seem to have expressions of upset when they saw me coming to share a row with them.  I thank God that this time and season, I have been given the strength and energy to work on my weight and even though I know I have more to lose than I have all ready lost, that on a day to day basis, God is giving me the power to continue.  I want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement, and to in turn encourage each of you who feel that you too have an issue or challenge in your life.  Just as God in Christ determines the time and season, we also must know that we can do all things in Christ who gives us strength.  Let us all pray for that strength. 

In the Love of Christ, Pastor Bob