Exalted Over All

I got married 2 years ago this coming October. Levi and I dated long distance for 3 years or so before we got engaged. Technically speaking, we never actually dated, but that’s another (hilarious, in my opinion) story for another time. So anyways, we were together in some form or another, long distance for 3 years. When we got engaged, people started asking me what I was going to do once we got married and I moved to a new location, obviously assuming I would (and often times encouraging me to) pursue the career I went to college for. That sounded awesome, and I loved my college major and even worked in the field (health and fitness) for a while before getting married. But Levi had built a business that allowed him flexibility in his life, and I knew that’s something I didn’t want to mess up. We both had a love for travel and seeing knew places, and that was the plan: live a relaxed life and travel a lot.

The plan for myself was to work from home. I wanted to become “Instagram famous” and build a health and fitness career that I could work from home, or from the road (hashtag van life). So a few months into our marriage I began working towards that, but it didn’t take me long to realize my heart really wasn’t in it. It felt trivial to be writing blogs about travel or fitness, and posting pictures of myself doing Lord knows what. It would cross my mind that maybe I should be writing and posting about more important things, but I always pushed it away with the thought that “people who blog about God never get noticed. I need to write about something people care about, and that’s health and fitness.”

I’m not even really sure if that’s true, but at this point I don’t care if it is or not. I went on a social media fast following Christmas. I’m not sure when I started or how long it lasted because it wasn’t planned, and I wasn’t keeping track. I hate using cliché Christian terms, but the fact is that the Lord was working in my heart. I think I knew it at the time, and maybe that’s why my heart was never really in the fitness or traveling pieces. I have so much more to talk about, and are fitness or traveling really the essence of my life? I hope not. I hope when I die people don’t write a eulogy about how much I practiced my double unders.

Moving on…

At the beginning of every year, I make resolutions (duh). The beginning of this year really sucked for me. First I got the flu, then a cold, then pneumonia, then strep, then another cold. Nonetheless, I’ve actually somehow been sticking to my resolutions. Probably because I made them super attainable. Every year I make a resolution of reading books. Like hard copy books. I just love those. I don’t make the resolution every year because I don’t meet it, I make the resolution because I want to keep reading every year. Anyways, this year I wanted to make it a year of theology. One year that all (or at least the majority of) the books I read have something to do with learning about God, the Bible, or something along those lines. I wasn’t making very good progress with that resolution (even though I had made pretty good progress on my pullups and handstands) until a friend mentioned the book Radical. I was like oh yea, I have that book. I should read it. So I just picked it up one day and felt like I couldn’t put it back down. For a few months I had been thinking somewhat regularly about people who have less than me. Ugh we’re so wicked blessed here in America, and I think of people in villages in Africa and anywhere around the world, who lack the resources to get out of poverty.

Not people who made bad choices, or spent their money frivolously, or decided they’re just as happy living on the streets as they are living in a house, but the people who lack the resources to get out of poverty. And it was like David Platt was reading my mind. I was just like “Oh my word, he’s right. Ugh what do I do now??” I have no doubt that was divine intervention of the Lord telling me to stop thinking about other people and get up off my lazy butt and start doing something about it. Don’t get me wrong, there are people in the states that are in need as well, and I am taking steps to help those people too. But one problem I had was I felt like I couldn’t help people across the world and not be helping people in my neighborhood. And I didn’t know how to help people in my neighborhood, so I just didn’t do anything. The craziest thing is that as I moved from Radical (David Platt) to Crazy Love (Francis Chan), to Rebels of Grace (Aaron Currin), all those books had interwoven messages. Thanks God, I get the point. But what do I do?



So why am I sharing all this, and what the heck does it have to do with my blog or Instagram fast? To be honest, I’m not quite sure where I was going with all that lol. But the fact of the matter is this: I don’t want to sit on my butt anymore and watch people across the world (or in my neighborhood) die of dehydration, malnutrition, or prostitution. I know the thoughts I’m writing about, and the ones I’ll write about in the future won’t make me insta famous, but I don’t care anymore. I care about your soul, and I care whether or not I’m proclaiming my Lord’s name to anyone and everyone that I can while I’m alive. I don’t care if I reach hundreds of people with today’s WOD, I care if I reach one person for the sake of God’s kingdom. I still love fitness and it’s a huge part of my life, but I think the difference is that whereas before I wanted to share fitness and traveling with you, and maybe add a little bit of God, now I want to share God and if that includes fitness and traveling, then sweet! I would love for you to come along side me as I learn and grow in my walk with Christ (and as my muscles grow, hashtag gains). I am far from perfect, and that is not and never will be what I want to portray. I pray you will join me on my journey!

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” (1 Tim. 4:8, NLT)