Can You Handle the Truth?

 Once again, I will admit that I'm human. I struggle with many of the same things that keep everyone else up at night. And for the first time in my life, I know what it feels like to struggle with my weight. Maybe it's my advancing age (48) and slowing metabolism, or maybe it's just that I'm burned out, but after a very intense 2012 filled with multiple endurance events and a move to PA, I throttled it back over the holidays and got really complacent. Oh, I exercised. But not intentionally, and I kept eating and drinking as if I were training for another Ironman. On January 1st, I stepped on the scales at a friend's house and the number 206.3 flashed back at me. There must be something wrong with the scale, I thought. I've never weighed that much in my life! But it was a brand new scale, and we calibrated it soon after I stepped down, and low and behold it was dead accurate. I looked at myself in the mirror and didn't like what I saw. I had been avoiding the scale for a few months, but what I couldn't avoid was the reality of slow runs, slower races, tighter fitting jeans. I kept rationalizing and justifying and making excuses and....everything but accepting the truth. As an athlete, I knew what I needed to do - I have done it for 30+ years! But knowing and doing are often two very different things. I guess I kept hoping that the daily decisions I was making wouldn't catch up with me, but they do and they did. After a few months of keeping the scale at bay and not being honest with myself, it was time to face the facts. I was headed somewhere I didn't want to go. So I cut back on my portions, stepped up my exercise, found an accountability partner, signed up for a March race, and set up a little weight loss contest at work to keep me motivated.

When it comes to our weight, the scale never lies - the truth may often hurt, but when we continue to put off seeking the truth we know there are consequences. When we put off getting into the Word, there are also consequences. It's next to impossible to stay disciplined in our personal lives, to do those things we know we need to be doing, and to be the people we are called to be, if we are not in some kind of daily relationship with God, striving to better understand His truths. What happens is, much like gaining weight, we eventually get to that point where we are uncomfortable - something happens and we wonder why we are where we are or are unprepared to handle what's come our way. Or maybe it's where we find ourselves, far from where we need to be. It's simply that we've drifted away from the Truth. We've gotten complacent - we've accepted new habits, settled in to new ways, and rationalized behavior. So we let the belt out another notch and keep going until we need a new belt. Or a new wife. Or friends. Or job. Or a new life.

It doesn't have to ever get to that point if we seek the truth daily in all facets of our life. We may not always like what we have to hear (or like what we have to see when we step on the scale), but the Truth ultimately will set us free to be who we need to be - unburdened by the extra weight of guilt, shame, fear and doubt. Believe.        

"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  - John 8:32