The Tormentor

I've been working out with Dawn the Tormentor fairly consistently for the last four years.  Look at her, over there on the right.  She looks dangerous, powerful, deadly -- right?

She's great, of course, despite her having tried to kill me approximately twice a week for four years.

I may be the only person who hired a trainer and then gained weight for two years. 

From "If Only" to "What If" -- Changing the Dream

Ten people sat around the table in the church’s Fellowship Hall. Together the members of the church council represented about 25% of the church’s total active membership and about 50-75% of its average weekly worship attendance. Their pastor had just moved on, and they had invited me there to talk about options for pastoral leadership.

I knew that what I was really there to talk about was change.

Failure? Or Detour?

I'm trying to become a fan of failure.

For the last 19 months, I've been on a journey toward improved health and fitness.  I've lost about 160 pounds with more to go, gained actual hard biceps and some ab muscles I can begin to feel at least a little bit.  I can walk for several miles, ride a bike for 20-30 miles, walk up and down stairs with ease, and do all kinds of things I couldn't do before.  Using many measures, I've had a lot of success.

I also had a tough winter.  Stress, grief, and anxiety in many forms took their toll, as did what felt like too many months of cold and snow.  I gained back about fifteen pounds, maybe a little more.  A couple of days ago, I read a blog over on SparkPeople from someone who had done the same thing.  She talked about it as her "failure."  She made a vow not to fail again.  I recoiled from this, and I began to wonder why.

Risen Christ vs. Zombie Jesus

May 1, 2011 | Second Sunday of Easter Year A

1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

I'll be the first to confess that I have missed a fair number of popular culture memes. I try to stay on top of things, but I'm often pretty much behind the curve. So I was late, for example, on vampires. I read one of Anne Rice's books, but didn't really get the appeal. And I never got to see Buffy the Vampire Slayer until after the series was over. I fell in love with it and ended up buying it on DVD. And although some of my online friends were talking about zombies a couple of years ago, and sending pictures of the makeup and costumes they been putting together for zombie parties, I didn't get it.

Apparently, zombies have had a resurgence in popular culture in recent years. I'd seen hints. I'd seen a hint of it in a book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, A sort of "Mr. Darcy meets the undead" thing. Now if you are a fan of Jane Austin and zombies, it sounds like it's just the ticket. I didn't quite get the fullness of the zombie metaphor,  however, until last Sunday. Last Sunday, Easter, I was looking at my Facebook feed in the evening when I ran across a status update from a friend of mine who said "I have to admit, Easter kind of freaks me out. No offense, but the whole Zombie Jesus thing is really freaky to those of us on the outside. Just so you know. I sort of understand the idea, but, um, Zombie Jesus, you know?"