You can’t lose weight by talking
about it.
You have to keep your mouth shut.
my dad, Carl A. Smith
This post is NOT about
one slob’s valiant efforts to shed weight.
It’s about something entirely
different. I promise.
I’ve reached The Salad Threshold three times – each of the last
three Springs as I began riding my bike to wear off winter weight gain. The riding season always starts off the same…
check over the bike, locate my sweat bands, rinse out the CamelBak “hydration
system”, check the weather, get on the trail, and ride. And NO!
I don’t dress in sissy poser Tour de France togs and NO! I don’t ride on
the streets and clog up traffic at rush hour.
You’re welcome on both accounts.
It doesn't take many days of riding before I hit The
Salad Threshold (TST). TST is an amazing mindset that happens
after riding for two hours daily, sweating gallons of water, nursing
aching muscles, and getting up the next day to do it all over again. TST
happens when I come face to face with why I’m riding in the first place. I do a loop… in other words, I’m not riding
to “get somewhere”. I’m riding to work
off all the food I ate without enough exercise in the winter. TST
happens when I realize that every extra calorie I ingest costs me effort on the
bike trail.
Look at that innocent box of goodies to the right. “Sweet
Fredom” they call it. “No sugar
added” they brag. Each 100 calorie bar
in that box is one third the size of
a banana and yet eating each one will cost me a mile and a half on the bike! (And do you think I want just one?) What I ate between Christmas and New Year’s
Day alone will cost me a month of biking.
The tamales I ate just during the BCS Championship game alone will cost me three long
days of bike riding. (We call
them Loose Belt
Tamales.) THAT’S WHEN THE SALAD THRESHOLD KICKS IN - I
suddenly realize the high cost of what I’m eating and
then I really only want to eat salad.
Let me shift gears here, after all this is supposed to be a blog
spiritual stuff. Hear this word from our
Sponsor:
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? (Luke 14:28)
Jesus teaches us that we should count the cost of what we do
before we do it. Here, He is talking about people who want to
be His followers but who may not be ready for the commitment. It’s a common human condition – we like the
idea of something, but we don’t think through the consequences to us or
others. On Christmas Day, I was wolfing
down jambalaya and gumbo like I was a dying man. I was not looking at my bike, I was looking
at the andouille! Our Sponsor had
something to say about food as well:
Do not worry then, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear for clothing?” … But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)
Let me put the fine point on this. We live on earth and we are earthly minded. We tend to “seek first” the pleasure of the
moment. When we seek what feels good now
we tend to make “miscalculations”. A
miscalculation of food means an extra week on the bike. A miscalculation of behavior… well, what’s
the cost of that?
Followers of Jesus will celebrate Easter in three days. There will be Good Friday services where we
remember Jesus’ death. We’ll eat a
little cracker and drink a little grape juice.
On Sunday, there’ll be singing, and preaching, and general celebratin’ as
we remember Jesus’ resurrection. But where
in all this will you count the cost?
You do know why Jesus died, don’t you? You do know why this man, the Son of God, who
never miscalculated anything, went to the criminal’s cross, don’t you? Because spiritually, you and I missed The
Salad Threshold. Neither you nor I considered
the cost of our behavior. We didn’t
consider the consequences. Hey, maybe it
was just little 100 calorie bit of gossip.
Or maybe, it was a whopping tamale of a sin that, now, you can’t
actually believe you committed. But just
the same, the price has to be paid – the weight of the debt has to be worked
off.
Jesus never gossiped.
Jesus never lusted for the inappropriately dressed girl at the gas
station. Jesus never cheated on His
taxes, He never disobeyed His mother, He never said to His brother, “I hate
you.” He knew no sin. And He’s out there riding the spiritual bike
while you’re stuffing your face with spiritual Twinkies and tamales. It’s not fair, is it? THANK GOD!
This Easter season, in the midst of all the pastel colors,
new clothes, and exuberance of Spring, I pray that you’d hit The Salad Threshold. I pray that all of us learn to count the cost
of our behaviors. When we hit that Threshold we truly begin to live
as Followers of Jesus and honor the death that bought our release from
the weight of sin. Thank you, Jesus!
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