On a roller coaster

Several years ago, I entrusted the task of helping me to lose weight to a man whose company was gaining lots of respect in the area of proper nutrition.  The leader of this nutrition alignment company hadn't always worked in the area of teaching better eating habits.  He had been a pilot for lots of years, even serving for a time piloting Air Force 1. 

His story was one I found quite interesting so I want to share some of it with you. He told of controlling his weight when it was time for him to take a scheduled physical, then after passing, he would start gaining his weight back, a little at a time.  He was on a roller coaster going up and down with his eating habits, a practice that any doctor will tell you is not healthy.

He started looking for other areas of interest where he might become employed and was invited to join a group which made financial recommendations for investors. He attended a five day seminar to learn as much as he could about the financial world, and was about to be hired by an investment firm.

The final speaker of the seminar was in the middle of his presentation and attempted to sum up the entire week's teaching session.  He told the group, "Our whole week has been filled with laws and suggestions relating to finance, but to be truthful about the matter, it can be summed up in one sentence.  'Wealthy people do things that make money; poor people don't.'"

I told you this man was not always involved in teaching better nutrition techniques, but he did have an interest in that field.  That's when he applied what he had learned at the financial seminar and came up with his own version of the summation sentence, and started his career as a successful nutritionist.  His sentence went like this, "Slim people do things that help them lose weight; fat people don't."  It was from that sentence he built his company and is still active and successful in his work. 

Am I off-base if I make a sentence for an application to living the Christian life?  Think about this one, "Successful Christians do the things God asks us to do; defeated Christians don't."  I mention this because I can see in your lives and mine, we have too much roller coaster Christianity going on, sometimes on the peaks and often in the valleys.  Even those of us who have been Christians for years find ourselves in "downer" situations and that's exactly where Satan wants us. 

Think with me for a moment. When we demonstrate the lifestyle of wavering faith, defeated goals, sour disposition, or ruined relationships, we are telling the world around us that Christianity does not work. All the while, God's Word continues to give us the solutions, His Spirit lives in us to direct, counsel, encourage and lead us every step of the way. The blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us and make us whole. 

If I were to suggest one Bible verse that should keep us positive, always on the peaks, even when life tries to get us down, this is it.  "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life" 1 John 5:13.

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