If you have come to find more reasons for your warehouse of excuses I’m sorry but you are reading the wrong blog. I am not here to commiserate with you or help you remain where you are. Stagnation will not be confused with comfort. If this is your first visit you will learn that I usually will kick you in the pants before I hug; l will encourage and push you to reclaim your life. This is the one life we are given. Today is the youngest we will ever be.
I am here today to serve as catalyst for change in your heart and mind for the betterment of your soul. I want to assist you in finding that spark which fans the flames of your nous which has slumbered too long. Perhaps due to lack of proficiency or temperament I am not here to discuss theoretical applications for the theology of our great faith. I am not interested personally in speculative ideologies or theories as they are beyond my intellectual capacity but rather like Keirkegaard I am very much vested in living a Christian more importantly Orthodox life concretely. There are certain behaviors which demand the attention of the body, mind and spirit. The Trinitarian relationship of these distinct and unconfused aspects to our beings are intended to holistically and authentically engage the practice of our faith and relationship to God and fellow man. As we have lived our lives in this fallen world with our fallen nature often times in an attempt to survive or at the advice of poor council we have compartmentalized personhood. We have created for ourselves within the very confines of our material life a fractured and often pained existence.
Too many have taken up the cause of neglectful parents or abusive spouses and wrongfully integrated their shame and perceive their guilt for our own. Do not dwell in the past only respectfully acknowledge that it has shaped, and molded you and to some degree with your consent. Unfortunate circumstances don’t have to to affect the whole of your life. Beginning is not pretty but it is beautiful.
This blog concerns itself with liberation of the Mother Church and the faithful. With the integration of Biblical Principles and Orthodox Traditions into practical living as a very real way to return to God embracing the whole of our being our Trinitarian selves. Suggestions you'll find deal primarily with the ability of the faithful to actualize significant, sustainable, change in their daily living. This is only doable when you turn away from old folklore which tells you its not possible. When confronting the three aspects of our existence and their original purpose to dwell with God and to love and glorify Him we need to really shake up the status quo. We need to climb mount Everest so to speak. We need a mountain that is so awe-inspiring so difficult that it will defy all your self doubt it will force you to abandon defeatist ideologies.
I have tried to get your attention. Break the inertia which prevents you from becoming the real you the person you intend to be. To dismiss dysfunction ego dystonic coping mechanisms and to embrace the creature of God YOU. My entries humbly serve as a kind of change agent or catalyst for my readership to wake them up from the slothful state and encourage the decisions which will empower. You must engage in behaviors which will create sustainable change.
My focus with the marathon training is one which encourages participants to pick a goal which at the time will seems beyond their reach and to attain it through daily affirmations and declarations. It is not for the faint of heart it demands follow through and commitment. The participants who have contacted me have been given the tools to become active in their own lives standing as a beacon of light for their neighbors. I am available to assist them in the course of their training and through the process. Embark on this journey and essentially commit to the extreme, to create a life changing experience, one which will take you on the journey to a more centered, introspective and strength-based outlook on life. You will learn to love and cherish yourself so that you can love your neighbors more fully. The trials and tests which will force you to confront insecurities and accept on faith that you will develop a more astute understanding of Orthopraxis.
You don't have to be a different person you simply need to establish new rules of engagement. Declarations, modified behavior clarified thought. The gifts graciously follow.
Establishing a goal which appears to be either totally out of reach or just out of reach which requires then some measure of faith. To fold under the fear of failure or to reinforce the self defeating beliefs that keeps us contained and often times unfulfilled and miserable. To conceive of doing something which is beyond the measure of our talent is after all a challenge to our disbelief. The marathon is the gold standard of running and in sports. It is the model that we will utilize together. It is so challenging, generating so much awe that it will smash to smithereens all the self doubt removing all the ‘yeah buts’ from your conversation and internal dialogue. It is demanding and requires that you do what is required and for your diligence and effort you will have success not just by completing the marathon race day. You will grow in ways that are not yet identifiable to you. You will dig deep and come to know yourself in very intimate ways. You will have to take it one step at a time you will have to stay on course and reach out and within to God in the most honest way without all the superficial dressing we are so accustomed to. I don’t believe that many of us understand true and honest dialogue with ourselves let alone with God. You will get real and you will program yourself to accept on blind faith that this is working in you and it will work. You will learn that the greatest obstacles before us are not the physical limitations but the mental ones. The emotional concrete that cements us into droning on and slothfulness.
Through determination and diligence you can reclaim purpose and strength. Marathoning make it real. It is simple process actually begin at the start and keep going to the finish. A real no brainer. It doesn't rely on the judgment of a referee or a time clock just you and the road. It is all the steps and miles run before race day. Be willing to look stupid or awkward to reach your goal. It is humility not humiliation. It is determination not rigidity. Commit to do one day at a time to borrow a phrase from the twelve step programs. Let go of past defeats and insecurities because just beyond the horizon is a new day a new beginning.
Will running pay the bills, make the kids listen fix the marriage. No not in a hocus pocus kind of way but it will change you and how others perceive you. It will teach you not to get hooked into another persons measure of success. It gives you the time and space to relearn how to walk with God and peaceably with yourself. This will have a profound effect on your life on living. People have become too practiced at complaining and holding a grudge against their bodies, their childhoods, their parents their God. It is time to set aside that defeatist mindset and do something about it. Get practiced at being honest, grateful, strong and trusting. Become fierce with your fears. The road is long and there is a lot you can work out while running. Engaging the mind body and soul you will be transformed and transfigured by the process. Even the most gifted athlete will find it challenging. There should be no secondary gains attached to the completion of the marathon. To finish should be the only agenda. This way success is easily identifiable and measurable. To have secondary gains piggy back the experience like losing weight takes the focus of healing and growing off the table. You will lose weight your body will change you will be different but let the process make it happen. You will think about yourself in new ways in more meaningful ways. Your subconscious the part of you that stuffs all your hang-ups down will be free to explore in a new dimension the one free of judgment the one which recognizes that you are doing something grand and that your past died in the past. This is the first day of the rest of your life a truism I know but true non-the-less.
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