How To Move A Mountain

Sometimes I feel like a mountain.


And if I am not a mountain, then there’s one large one sitting, feet-out, arms-crossed upon my ambitions. I feel like I have a few battles I cannot win.


Which I know is not true.
So I wonder what my problem is.


I want to get my workout in before 9:00am. I finally get to it at 1:00pm.


I want to lose ten pounds. I get the “Lose It” app on my phone. I chart for three weeks, see no progress and quit.

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I set a goal to write for two hours a day, and end up doing many other things, perhaps any other things, but fail to actually write.


And I want to know HOW to MOVE this MOUNTAIN!


I went to the Christian Women in Media “Girlfriends and Chocolate” event a few days ago. I was in line with my friend Wendie. I chose the fruits and veggies, no dip. I put the cheese squares on my plate sparingly. I didn’t take a cookie. I am aware of how she manages her diet, based on her knowledge and her fitness/faith focus, and so being near her motivated me to deny myself some things.


I don’t have that king of motivation at home when Dale brings home . . . pizza.


The next morning I thought of Wendie, and how she has ‘guard rails’ in her mind. She has signposts “Do Not Enter” placed there for the cheese and the sugar and the meat. Because I have some guard rails of my own. And there are those that were formerly in place in my mind, but have been hit by a proverbial car and have landed in the ditch somewhere.


One of them was “No Cheese Allowed” . . . my motivation for that guard rail was that I believed cheese made me fat. And I didn’t WANT to be fat.


Wendie and another friend and I talked about food choices, and what foods do to our bodies, and a bit about the pollution in our American food and the high cost of buying organic.


And we talked about what motivates an Olympian to pursue their goal. Because even Wendie has things she feels like she wants more passion to pursue. [Every human, hello!]


I love to see the beauty of men and women achieving exceptional goals. I’m guessing you do too.


I just wish I loved doing the work as much as I love seeing the result. [Ahem.] 


As God would have it, I am currently reading through proverbs AND the Olympics are on. So the day after sitting with Wendie, I read this:

“A worker’s appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on.” Proverbs 16:26

And I realize it is DESIRE that drives the human heart. My desire for cheese . . . or chocolate, as the case may be, drives my choice to eat it, and obviously TRUMPS my desire to lose the excess ten pounds I’ve been carrying around for the past fifteen years.


I wonder if . . .
Comfort is the enemy of advancing to achievement. 
And if that is the case . . .

Self-denial is the friend of our passionate pursuit.


I wondered what motivated Michael Phelps to pursue the world record for gold medals in swimming. So of course I searched on google. When I found his twenty inspiring quotes, I realized the thing about facing a mountain.


Moving it is rooted in desire. You can see it in his words, “dream. imagine. willing. love. achieve. . . . ”


As a believer in Jesus and His power, I have, on my side and within me, the resurrection power of Christ and His Spirit. He has given me a spirit of self-control. With that in mind, I realize that indeed, I am the mountain. It is only my refusal to believe and to do the work that keeps me from attaining the thing I desire to do. 2 Timothy 1:7Galatians 5:22-23


I’ve often said there are only two things that keep us from God and I believe the same two things keep us from walking in His will for our lives. Especially our passionate pursuit of Him and His will.


They are two sides of the same coin [I call it Self] Pride and Unbelief.


Daily I need to die to my self and my inferior desires.
Daily I need to kill my own pride and wipe out my unbelief.


This cannot be done by my own will power, I need to rely on His power at work within me. I must search out His word and fight the lies of “I can’t” and “I don’t have it in me” replacing them with, “I can do all things through Christ” and “it is Him who is able to make all grace abound”


I watch that UnderArmor video again, I see the strain and the pain, and I remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I beat my body and make it a slave . . . so that I won’t be disqualified for the prize” and I realize the Olympians are there reflecting God. I think that is why we love to watch them. And even UnderArmor has godly knowledge for the world:


“It’s what you do in the dark that puts you in the light.” #RuleYourself

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Amen UnderArmor. Amen.


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