I had to learn that my thought life is what controls my emotions, my energy levels, my physical health, my attitude, and my receptiveness to compliments and insults.
Something you may have heard me say every so often is,
“Your body can handle 10 times more than you think it can.”
Weeeeell… if you’ve had any insight into my life recently, you’ll know that I’ve had many opportunities to put this saying of mine to the test: From days living on one meal and as many hours of sleep as there are fingers on Frodo’s hand, to sleeping for 16 hours and eating like a king who’s grandma thinks he’s skinny.
In all my testing, there is much that I’ve discovered in the areas of rest, reliance on God, thinking patterns, and self talk. One such discovery, as you may have guessed, is that my saying is unfounded.
Oop.
Now there is merit to understanding that the human body can withstand an immense amount of strain. After all, we are built in the very image of the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe and He keeps our hearts beating and lungs breathing.
But we are not superman (even if some time in the sun would do us good).
Running one’s self into the ground is largely frowned upon in the Made Up Committee of Keeners (MUCK for short).
“So how do I do it?!” You might ask. “How do I become one of those high performing, low maintenance people?”
Well, what I have discovered (after much reading, testing, and deliberating) is that your body cannot handle 10 times more than you think it can.
[Whoever thought that up must have at one time been a silly goose. Though I’m sure he’s now a wise, knowledgeable individual]
Instead, one should adopt the thinking:
“Your body can handle exactly what you think it can.”
I noticed a very important pattern as I was performing tests on my hypothesis: On the days that I thought I could make it through the day, I could. And on the days that I thought I couldn’t make it through the day, I couldn’t.
I had to learn that my thought life is what controls my emotions, my energy levels, my physical health, my attitude, and my receptiveness to compliments and insults.
“So…” You might inquire “how do I think better?”
If I may call upon the wisdom of the MUCK… You are what you eat.
Fill an open and unattended YETI travel mug with steaming chamomile tea and the room will start to smell of it. Fill it instead with white vinegar and you’ll get a very confused youth pastor.
[What?!]
To take it a step further… You are what you vomit. Though I guess we should move past the food analogy.
To quote Jesus (cuz I know He won’t sue me)
“It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
(Matt 15v11)
So, my dear readers (all 2 of you), to put it in plain english:
See, hear, say and… feel? (I guess if you read braille) good things.
On behalf of the many people that agree with me but I didn’t cite, thank you for reading!