Recalibrating… 7 Ways to Get in Gear

Confession time: I began 2020 about 25 lbs over my goal weight.  Even though I’ve had success in weight loss and maintenance over the past few years, I got off-track.  I gained some weight in the fall and then got super busy at work; I was only exercising sporadically. I lost my routine, and it shows.  Going home for Christmas only made it worse. I had the chance to eat a bunch of Christmas goodies that I didn’t even want to resist, and before I knew it, all those little moments of busyness, apathy, and temptation added up.  Specifically, to about 25 lbs, in my case.   

So...I’ve decided it’s time to recalibrate.  That’s a mechanical word, which means to determine, check, or rectify the settings of an instrument.  In my case, it’s time to do all three - determine where I want to be, check on my current habits, and then rectify those areas where I’m not getting the desired results.  Fortunately I’ve learned some tools along the way that helped me lose 115 pounds and change my life completely. And the best part… these 7 ways to get back in gear don’t just apply to health goals.  Whatever your objective, these 7 ways to get in gear can help!

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Accessibility - a Love/Hate relationship with Whatsapp

I feel like I’m about to sound like an old grandma, rocking in a rocking chair and clicking her false teeth when I say when I’m about to say….but it is the truth. When I left for the missionfield at the age of 21,  technology was still in the dark ages. The common way to get ahold of someone in those days was still a landline phone, and no one had so much as an email address.

In the past 25 years, we’ve taken giant steps forward with iphones, Facebook uniting the entire world, and then came messaging apps.  In Spain, the most popular texting app is “Whatsapp” where you can message individuals or set up groups, where everyone on the church worship team, for example, can be in constant contact. 

Yes, CONSTANT CONTACT.  All hours of the day and night.  Inside jokes, memes, photos, emojis, devotional thoughts and other scriptural encouragements, and buried in there somewhere, are usually announcements or important information I need to know. This has HUGE implications in ministry.  Living in a world where you have instant communication builds an expectation of instant response.  Someone can text you for prayer, for advice, for a decision and ministry never stops. 

But it comes at a cost sometimes, and “rest” is lost.  “Sabbath” is affected.  My own sense of peace and joy takes the hit. 

So this year, the FIRST thing I’m doing is rest.  

I’m going “off the grid” for a week.  Oh, I’ll still use my technology—I’ve got a thousand books on my library app, and I’m ready to read and relax.  I’ll still text my loved ones.  But…I won’t be working.  I won’t be responding.  Please don’t be offended if you’re one of the people waiting for a response.  I’ll be back at work soon enough, but until then, “Hasta luego.”  

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Forget Not What You've Already Got

We roll our eyes each year and snark that the kids get so much stuff for Christmas that they can’t even remember what all they got.  By the time they have Christmas with their own parents, then both sets of grandparents, and all the aunts and uncles, they’ve got a mountain of toys and clothes and no idea what all they’ve amassed under the piles of boxes and wrapping paper.

How human it is to have something precious one minute and forget it the next.  We’re get excited but it’s so short-lived.  And then we’re on to the next thing.  Even after the fun and surprise of all the Christmas gifts yesterday, we’ll go out shopping today to spend more money, get more stuff—hey, it’s 70% off at Old Navy!

That’s why a heart of gratitude takes effort.  It takes intentional focus and deliberate choice to sit still in the middle of the “getting” and just reflect on the magnitude of what we’ve already got.  

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Seven Fun Facts about Eating in Spain

One of the best parts of living in Europe is taking advantage of the cultural and culinary delights of countries here.  Spain is particularly delightful because life is so social here that people often spend hours in restaurants and bars with friends.  In fact, sometimes I think they spend more time eating out than they do eating at home.  True story: many Spanish apartments only have stove-top burners—no oven and no microwave!  Spaniards aren’t “bakers” and why would they need to be?  There’s a café with delicious pastries on every corner, and a Spanish bar with tapas in between your apartment and that café. If you’re hoping to vacation here, or perhaps even planning a trip, here are seven fun facts that you should know about eating out in Spain.   As they say in Spanish, buen provecho! (Enjoy your meal!)

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The Violent Take it by Force

Spend even one day in Madrid, and you’re likely to take public transportation at least once.  Madrid has a world-class system of buses, metrorail, and light-rail suburban trains. The metro system is celebrating 100 years in 2019, and the city has museums and exhibitions of original and historic metro cars throughout the city.  The public transport system is both a blessing and a vital necessity in a large city like Madrid. But for all its modernity and constant improvements, the metro has at least one great problem: rush hour.  The Sol metro station in the center of the city sees at least 100,000 people go through PER HOUR.  But one thing I’ve learned in five years is how to push myself into the solid throng of bodies, so that I get a few inches of space.

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The "Stops" of a Righteous Man

When I was northeastern Spain recently, I was fascinated the many doorframes I saw in a medieval city that were bricked up and closed off.  They were interesting to me, both architecturally and historically.   In a city over a thousand years old, at some point that archway opened up to a home or an alley or a possibility that no longer exists.  

God ordains the steps of a righteous man.  He ordains the “stops” of the righteous, too.

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Jetlag, Y'all. Jetlag.....

Jetlag, y’all.  Jetlag.  I got back to Spain on Monday, and was informed by a friend today that I can only use jetlag as an excuse for for five days, which means I’m at the limit.  But let me tell you a story of an #epicfail for which I *totally* blame the jetlag.


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Lake lessons

Last week I went to an area of Spain that I really love: Lagunas de la Ruidera, a national park area out in the middle of farmland in central Spain. It’s a collection of tiny lakes that stretch out over several miles...and nothing else. I actually love this area for that reason—it’s empty.  Peaceful. Quiet.   On my last day there I remembered to get a few rocks for my collection: I have some stones from most of my travels around Spain. In the clear water, I searched for some nice rocks, but I was disappointed to discover that all the rocks were ugly.  They were sharp and misshapen, instead of rounded and polished by the water, as I expected. I was sure with so much water, there would have to be more attractive rocks SOMEWHERE. The shoreline and the shallows of the lake were nothing BUT rocks.   But then it hit me; I realized why all the rocks were ugly. 



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A Bag of Groceries

What a difference a bag of groceries can make!  For most of us, the food we have in our cabinets is so abundant we don’t even use it all.  Our pantries have cans and jars that have probably been there quite a while. It’s hard to even imagine a kitchen where the cabinets sit empty, and there aren’t even half-used bottles of oil or ketchup. 

This month, we received a call from a woman who called to say that she was out of food.  Completely.  Not a bottle of oil, nor a package of pasta or rice remained in her home, and she has two sons in her household, too.  Thanks to the generosity of our church, we had some imperishable items stocked up, but I also went to the grocery store to “complete” the  donation for her family.  

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Cádiz - Part 1

I’d love to be able to say that I chose to visit Cádiz for it’s spectacular sea views or the magical allure of Andalusia, but the simple truth is that I chose Cádiz because when I was looking at train tickets, I discovered that it was the furthest point to which I could travel from the Atocha station in Madrid, and that sounded like a pretty good deal to me.  The spectacular sea views and magical appeal came later when I actually arrived, happily.

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Squeezing God's Hand

When I was a child, thanks to many health issues, I was terrified of the procedures and specialists I frequently faced. So my father came up with a brilliant idea: he put out his thumb, and said, “If the doctor does anything that hurts you, you squeeze my thumb with your hand. That way I’ll know that it’s hurting you.”  And I’m quite sure I immediately grabbed his thumb and started squeezing it just from the overwhelming desire to have my dad save me somehow from what was coming. To a child’s mind, squeezing his thumb was a magical way to transfer all the pain from me to him. And I could survive it because I knew that this connection would save me somehow from the effects of whatever procedure I had to endure.


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My Weapon is a Melody

Easter is my favorite day to sing at IC:Madrid.  Partly it’s because we do a longer and more showy music set that day, so the music part is awesome.  We rent a theater, and people come all excited, so the energy builds us into a greater musical experience, too.  Partly it’s because I know that so many people in that place don’t know Jesus at all, and once again I have the chance to use my voice and all my expression to make Him known, as loud and as beautifully as I can.  And I do.  Every year, I leave it all on the stage, even if I can barely talk afterward; I sing my heart out to make Jesus known.  But it wasn’t always this way. For years my insecurities almost ruined singing for me.

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What's in a Name?

Long before Shakespeare made his famous statement through Juliet’s musings about roses  smelling as sweetly, no matter the name, God gave us a much deeper perspective on names in His Word.  There are a few scant historical and literary references to the name Ariel, including the Bible, since Ariel is a masculine Hebrew name, however much the Disney version has given it a feminine grace.  Ariel is the androgynous spirit in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and it was also the name of one of the ships of the great American naval hero John Paul Jones.  The meaning of the name Ariel is “Lion of God” and *that’s* what’s prompted my lifelong reflection on the power of names.

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Who am I Now?

“Oh God, who am I now? Once I was secure in familiar territory in my sense of belonging, unquestioning of the norms of my culture, the assumptions built into my language, the values shared by my society. But now you have called me out and away from home, and I do not know where you are leading. I am empty, unsure, and uncomfortable. I have only a beckoning star to follow.”

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Be Still and Know

“Be still, and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10 tells us.  I’ve been reflecting on that, because it’s so easy to *be still* here in a place like this, where I’ve purposefully chosen to get away from everything for a while and just be still.  I’m usually so busy that I literally have to schedule these breaks on my calendar and on everyone else’s calendars so that I could have time away to be still. The question is how can I be still in Madrid? How do I achieve stillness in His presence while maintaining office hours and ministry schedules?  I’m a driven person by nature, so I’ve had to learn how to balance the pouring-out-part of ministry and the being-still-part of abiding with God.

I’ve found four ways to keep still, no matter how hectic life gets.  

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