A really cool Lesson and a short update at the end!

A few years ago, a man was told by his doctor that he was dying. As they were having this most difficult of conversations, the man asked his doctor what it was like? (Dying that is.) The doctor was thinking of how to respond when a sharp scratching sound came from the office doorway. The doctor rose and opened the door and there to greet him was a very happy golden retriever. The dog expressed very evidently his joy at seeing his master and then was ushered into another office to wait for the doctor to complete his consultation with the patient. The doctor came back into the office and said, “You saw my dog just arrive here, he has never been here before. However he knew his master was here and so with anticipation he came joyfully through a door he had never been through before! To answer your earlier question, I like to think this is what dying is like. We are going through a door we have never been through before, however we know our master is waiting on the other side and so we go with joy and anticipation knowing a welcome is waiting us there!”

I haven’t thought of this much since when my Dad died, however last week with the passing of Steve Jobs, I was caused to read his 2005 Stanford commencement address, in it he talked very eloquently of various things. I enjoyed what he said and was sorry I hadn’t heard it or read it sooner. However at one point in discussing dying he said, “Even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there.” This caused me to think about this a fair bit and the following is how it all came together in my mind.

We must learn to die to self, die to our self desires, longings, dreams and ambitions so that God can work into our lives whatever His plan for us is. (Don’t worry often the very thing He wants for us is even more wonderful and rich than what we can imagine for ourselves.) I am working at learning this. I had a wonderful experience of knowing several people in my life who successfully did this. Because you might by chance know some of these men and women, I am going to list their names and then you can see if you concur with my assessment. The people who come to mind are Stanley Sharpe, Steve Keech, Arnold Simpson (my dad), Ruth Haglund, Marion Robinson, Gordon Winkler, Alan Graham and many more.

I felt a little sad thinking of this, realizing one of the richest men in the world to his recollection never had the privilege of knowing someone who had learned and successfully implemented this lesson. I am so glad that the people I mentioned shared and affected my life… they were examples of “Letting go and letting God!” Their lives from start to finish were examples of this for as long as I knew them. I suddenly realized as I thought of it, how rich I am that I knew these people who, believed in Heaven and were dying to get there! I am going to work this week on living so that others will know when they come in contact with my life, “I too believe in Heaven and I too am dying to get there!”

Now on an additional note… I am continuing to enjoy good success on the first things first marathon and the lifestyle change adventure. My calorie counts got a little wonky this past weekend with several special feasts that I enjoyed, however I am well back on track and sweated my way through a very good “Hot Yoga” session at 6:30 AM this morning!

Just some rambling thoughts

Good morning, I haven’t updated this for a few days and so decided to rectify that by typing this as I get my day underway. I am happy to report that so far everything is continuing as it should. This means, first things first, lifestyle change in full swing. I haven’t noticed any swings this week in weight. However having hit the twenty pounds lost milestone a week ago, I am still riding this high!

It is the Friday before a long weekend; the office is going to be very quiet today as several are away and this keeps things relatively subdued! I am certain that if today goes like any other day then even though it starts slowly, come noon I will be wondering how I can fit in all I want to do before the time to do it in has passed.

It would seem that sometime this weekend we are going to try and at some point celebrate our twentieth anniversary. This is a bit of a milestone in many ways, unfortunately not in many of the ways it should be. I may or may not write more on this at some future time.

My poor son is fighting a bug of some sort and Kelsey continues to carry a load that in my mind is way too heavy for her young shoulders. However these are things that somehow from time to time make things better in the long run for the qualities that are worked into their young lives through this experience. Both kids have today off today and I enjoyed the following cartoon, thinking that in some way it was a little how it unfolded this morning.

I was supposed to have lunch with an old friend today, however that cancelled so now I am going to have to come up with something else! Oh well that’s what keeps life interesting. Time to make a phone call … well did that while I was typing and that didn’t work either so guess its time to move on too plan c.

Will maybe add more later

September 26th, 2011

Every once in a while a experience comes along so huge it takes your breath away and leaves you so thankful you can hardly find words to express it.

Here is an interesting storey: I have a lot of things in my experience right now that I would represent as “Needs” Some with work, some with my personal life and some that are a combination of both. I am also well aware of some of my friends who have significant needs right now also. With this being the case I was therefore quite thrilled with the following verse in Isaiah this week, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I (God) will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I (God) will hear.”

Then last night I heard the following:

Pray desperately for the need, but let God answer!

Here is the storey that was told to illustrate the wisdom of this. A young man owned at one time a very nice dog; she was well trained and loved nothing better than to travel with him to work. She being very intelligent soon learned that a certain time was quitting time and so often within about fifteen minutes of this time she would get impatient to go home and start barking and creating a disturbance to the point where sometimes they would just go. However once in a while the work needed to be done and going home was not an option, yet the dog would not stop insisting so a few times she then got taken home and left at home on her own while the “have too” work was completed. She did get what she wanted, but in reality she really didn’t want that and would have far rather remained where her master was. Being a dog of course she didn’t understand this. However this was used to illustrate that often when we see a need and start praying for the need we also formulate in our mind what the answer to the need will be. We need to be careful that we don’t do this as often what we perceive the answer of the need to be is not what the answer should be. God knows, let Him answer!

This is so huge for me, this means I can learn even better how to pray for the need, maybe even more desperately than I have here to fore… however rather than compiling in my own mind what the answer is I am hence forth going to work just as desperately at letting God work uninterrupted and let Him answer without any interruption or input from me no matter how well intentioned it might be.

Well now that that is out of the way on to other news. I now weigh in at a whopping 287 lbs as of this morning. This is exciting as I am now starting to fit some clothes which were a little too snug just a mere six or seven weeks ago

A Quick note from Yesterday

September 8^th, 2011

It is another very nice sunny day here at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. I once again completed my “Hot Yoga” class and so am fairly proud of this accomplishment. It is several weeks now that this has been my program and yet I am still very pleased that I have kept it up. I have to decide soon how I am going to go forward with this. I believe I will buy a ten time pass. It means I get to go to class twice a week for six weeks so it works best for me.

I am still continuing to keep first things first, struggling a little with the lesson that is mine to learn right now. I am finding however that as I keep first things first the other lessons that come up while causing some struggle are not quite as daunting to deal with as they would be if first things weren’t first.

I may add more to this later, currently I have to get a proposal delivered and a couple of other stops taken care of.

It now is September 9^th, 2011; I never did come back and add anything. Today I have so far worked on some drawings and cleaned up my desk a little.

Hey just keeping on keeping on!

September 7^th, 2011

Summer is here!!! Lol!!! This week has been extremely warm… forecast is almost 30° Celsius for today and this is very warm for here. The kids are back in school, Kelsey’s first day of High School went well so we look forward to more days like that. I have thanks to a long weekend done little blogging of late, however I have stayed on track on all fronts and thanks to this currently roll in at 292 lbs which is down significantly from my starting weight of 305 lbs.

Above is a picture of a graph of the five weeks of August and it would seem slowly I am shifting in the right direction as far as my Calories and getting higher Calories earlier rather than later in the day!

Well better let this be all for now… I am working on some fairly interesting lessons right now. Funny how we get one thing down and then God says, “Good work with that, now how about you deal with this!” I will go into more detail sometime I am sure… however I am working on it in a similar manner to my recent challenges.

Rainy September Morning

September 2^nd, 2011

A little rainy and cool this morning, however they are optimistically promising nice weather for the weekend. It will be interesting to see how things unfold over the next few days.

I get to have lunch with friends today that I have been looking forward to for a while. It should be nice. Lunches like this always have a way of lifting my spirits.

I have to write a weekly report, I have a couple of jobs to update in tracker and I have a couple of things to follow up on and quotations to get out before to late today. It should definitely help the day go by fast.

I am very pleased that today I can still report that first things have continued to be first. The success I had with the exercise challenge for August is keeping me hopeful that I will know an astounding and resounding victory with this also.

Summary for September 1^st, 2011

Total allowed calories today (Sept 1^st, 2011):    3097

Total used:                                                         2225

School is back in for the Kids today!

September 1^st, 2011

Hot yoga went very well this morning. I believe I got farther than I have so far… more coaching from the instructor as it was a smaller class than the class Tuesday morning. I didn’t have nearly as many dizzy feelings. I do need to get a larger, looser workout shirt as the one I got yesterday is just not quite big enough to be comfortable.

Yesterday seemed a good day with the calories… however it would appear I am not loosing what I did and it likely has something to do with the fact I still seem to be loading towards the end of the day rather than at the start. Will do something to change this as it is a key towards feeling better.

August has ended and I have nailed my commitment to exercise at least 20 minutes every day! I am thrilled with this and am going to carry on in this light. Lets see where I am a year from now doing this.

Summary for August 31^st, 2011

Total allowed calories today (Aug 31^st, 2011):  2631

Total used:                                                        1764

Oh on a side note some dweeb broke into my car yesterday and stole a bunch of stuff!!! It included my bag full of used "Hot Yoga" clothes... maybe there is a little justice in the world afterall!!!