Although the Warrior's Path blog has always been larger than any one (0r two) person's private lives, we thought it might be helpful to walk with you all in a little more intimate way through the "WP90X" challenge of spiritual disciplines that we have undertaken to accomplish between now and Christmas Day:
I awoke on day 1 around 6:30, with plenty of time to catch the sunrise...if only there had been a sunrise. It was a grey morning, and the darkness lingered. I stood by the window for a while staring into the gloom, then wrapped up in a blanket on the couch. It had been a late night and a broken sleep, and the discipline of rising early to be alone with the Lord has always been my greatest weakness. I struggled through 30 minutes of trying to settle in and focus my heart and thoughts on God, but when you are out of practice it can be so hard to slow down the cyclone of thoughts that rush at you as soon as your feet hit the floor. I didn't feel a whole lot of fruit to my prayer attempts, but sometimes setting disciplines in place and committing to "showing up" is all we can hope for. We all know that you "reap what you sow"; but unlike the generations who went before us, we don't have the agricultural experience to know how much hard work goes into sowing...and how much time it takes before you can enjoy the reaping. Once the discipline of "showing up" to be with God takes hold, we will have opened wide the door for Him to "show up" in the days and years ahead. (3 points: sunrise, time with God)
A little after noon I headed out for the nearest chance I had at catching a "beauty point". It was a thirty minute drive to the park, the sky was still overcast, the clouds were misting a light rain across the countryside, and there was (as there always is) a litany of reasons why I ought to "get busy". But the Warrior challenge drove me out there - out of my way, out of my schedule - in search of something that would stir my soul. My car, as always when I am focused, was my chapel, and the conversation with God that had begun in the morning resumed once again in earnest. (1 point - time with God)
The rain cleared out, but the air was wet and the wind was in the trees. It was a lonely, brooding sort of beauty that I found in my favorite part of the park, a small peninsula where you look down from a height past tall tree trunks to the water below, and then beyond it to the dense treeline on the island beyond. I found myself delightfully alone. I walked. I prayed. I stood. I read from Eldredge's book "Walking with God". I listened to some great soundtrack music to help revive my deep longings for more of God, more of Life, more of all that we have once tasted but lost somewhere along the way. (4 points - beauty, time with God, intercession for others, reading)
On the way home I stopped by a store and bought a gift for my wife - something she didn't need or didn't expect. (1 point: random act of kindness or generosity)
Next I swung by my dad's house, where I have all my workout equipment set up in his garage. (You might think he'd like to be parking his car in there at some point, but the old wooden garage door is far too heavy for him to lift, so there isn't much use bothering about whether he would like to park his car in there or not.) It was Spartan 300 day, and I was feeling naseous just at the thought of the workout I had in store. As it turned out, the workout was too much for me on this day, and I was so exhausted I chose to bail out on the last excercise when I saw that there was no way I was going to finish in under 3o minutes. (Yes, you fitness gurus: I know full well that the famed "300" test used in preperation for filming the movie "300" wasn't really fitness training, but a one-time test/challenge given at the end of four months of training. But I like it, and I use it once a week anyway.) (2 points: weightlifting workout and cardio workout)
Several of the points take a whole day to achieve: remaining sexually pure, eating with discipline (all the way til bedtime!), observing a vow of poverty, or silence, etc. (total of 6 points today)
All in all, it was a great day of disciplines - 17 points. Most importantly, it was a day of deliberately seeking time with the Lord - on multiple ocassions - and in the end that is the ultimate priorty. A good day.
And yet...
...it was only the beginning...
How was your score??
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