Devotional and Workout Edition (7 January 2013) to Mom and Dad for Living Your Faith in Our Hectic Family Business with Humility and Commitment to Christ
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Devotional and Workout Edition (7 January 2013) To Mom and Dad for living your faith in our hectic family business with humility and commitment to Christ. Your practical and faithful witness prepared me for Life! To Mark Thompson, my first mentor in Christ, for lovingly challenging my „personal theology‟ by asking, “Where do you see that in God‟s Word?” Your gentle confrontation inspired me to begin a lifelong quest for Truth in God‟s Word. To Wes Alford, my college and seminary roommate and dear friend, for your authentic passion for Truth, music, laughter, family and even bean dip! ROFL!! You inspired me to live for Jesus every moment. Anything less is just religion. To Tom Waynick, Jeff Voyles and Stephen Muse, mentors in counseling and mindfulness, for lovingly nudging my closed mind and self-protected heart until I could no longer remain as I was. And when I began to unravel, you stayed with me to begin a glorious new journey that I hope will never end. To Dan Rose, counselor to my wife and I, during one of the toughest years of our lives. You helped us hear our love for each other on the other side of our fears. God used you to bring a greater depth and joy to our marriage. To Jae Park, Shon Severns, and Jeff Zust - friends and co-workers who provided helpful specific feedback on earlier versions for greater clarity & practicality. And to my Lauren. There are not enough words. My eyes still tear up that “I am my beloved‟s and my beloved is mine”. Yes, I‟m a girly man - but I‟m your girly man! 1 The views expressed in „W.A.I.T. training‟ are my own and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or practices of the organizations in which I work or worship. This Devotional and Workout edition flows out of the Bible Study and Workbook edition. Although some of the introductory material is replicated here, I recommend the companion work for a fuller understanding of the concepts. The U.S. Army programs, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and Community Health Promotion, their proponents, and the individuals in the photos within this book do not necessarily endorse or have any knowledge of the Christian contents or intent of „W.A.I.T. training‟. All photos were from public domain websites. Unless stated otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. Use of this public domain translation enables a low-cost publication but is not intended to communicate a comprehensive endorsement of the KJV. „W.A.I.T. training‟ is the intellectual property of Jeff Dillard and is intended for the greater understanding and practical application of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. No part of „W.A.I.T training‟ is authorized for editing or sale without my written permission. To reproduce in this format, print on half sheets of A4 paper. Set the width at 5.83”, height at 8.27”, margins at top and bottom at .5”, left at .46” and right at .46”. Jeff Dillard 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Relational fitness, body and soul 6 „true‟ and „good‟ vs. True and Good 12 Now, where do we stand? 15 What the Bible reveals about feelings and actions 17 Live a whole life in Christ 21 Stop trying to avoid all emotional pain 22 Discern your values as ends and means 24 Engage others with openness for mutual growth 25 Hunger and thirst for righteousness 26 The power of „proximity‟ and „progress‟ 27 Two reasons individuals tend to resist change 30 Two reasons relationships tend to resist change 31 Lynchpins of resistance or change 34 See and Say it, then Share and Show it 37 Felt emotions and heart dispositions 38 Slavery, body and soul 40 A peak ahead: exercising the Body of Christ 41 Example workout dynamics 42 Recommended exercise formats 43 24 Pictures of the Gospel Balance 46 Breath 52 Flexibility 58 Form 64 Fuel 70 3 Genes 76 Hunger 82 Hygiene 88 Image 94 Initiative 100 Instinct 106 Maturity 114 Pain 122 Partners 130 Rest 136 Reward 142 Sacrifice 148 Safety 154 Stamina 160 Stress 166 Tools 172 Training 178 Vision 184 Weight 192 Example tools 200 A suggest guide to journaling 204 Example programs 213 Example one day workshop 224 Helping your group open up and bond 226 Using music with W.A.I.T. training 235 Summary and closing thoughts 240 A recommended reading list 243 4 5 Relational Fitness, Body and Soul After years of counseling singles, couples, families, white collar and blue collar workers, and homemakers of all kinds of races, religions and cultures, I find that most of us focus on only part of our problems: our emotions or beliefs or actions in relationships. But God created us to live as whole people. W.A.I.T. training proposes practical ways to do that by self-awareness of body and soul, genuine expression, and mutual help through small groups of Bible study, fellowship and physical exercise. Why exercise? Because our body is an instrument of our soul (see Genesis 2:7, bodily expressions of the soul in Psalm 119, Romans 6:16, 1 Corinthians 6:15-20, James 2:26, etc.), and His Word provides at least 24 physical principles to guide our spiritual fitness. Why group exercise? Because God‟s people are the Body of Christ (Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:12ff, Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:12-16, 5:23, Colossians 1:18-24), so He calls us to grow together. In Christ, you'll begin growing as a whole person as you Watch your body in times of physical & relational stress, and Accept what you experience as spiritual realities in you, but Invest in real Life according to the Word of God, and Team with the Body of Christ for real growth and joy! The first two are for a deeper individual experience of your body for self-awareness of your soul. The second two are for a more helpful relational expression in His Body for unity in Christ. Without the first process, we may not fully grasp what our soul truly values and the associated deep hopes and hurts. Without the second, we cannot fully live God‟s will because He is relational: Father, Son and Spirit. But like any kind of worthwhile growth, it won't be easy. Ready to get started? 6 In 2011, the U.S. Army began a program that may help us understand God‟s design for relational fitness, body and soul. Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) names five areas of our lives that affect our ability to bounce back from hardships: spiritual, emotional, physical, family and social resilience. And each of these areas affects all of the others all of the time. CSF doesn‟t seem to prioritize the areas, but I‟ve set them in a specific arrangement with parenthetical descriptions to help us see the practical intent of God‟s design for the body and soul. Look over the design for a few minutes before you turn the page. Then share some of your thoughts with your group. Don‟t worry about „getting it right‟. Just work on building understanding of each other and trust in each other. If you‟re not in a group yet, write your thoughts in a notebook. If you have a color copy of the image, note that the colors highlight three distinct areas of our life: our body that works like a thermometer (measuring 'heat') and thermostat (making desired changes) to connect our soul to our relationships. 7 In a few minutes, I'll come back to this image to discuss practical applications for self-awareness of body and soul in relationships in the Body of Christ. But I'm aware that this graphic, the concepts (such as "self-awareness") and talk of living as "whole" people may be confusing, even weird. So I offer a second design that might help clarify how our body and soul interact practically in relationships. On the next page is a picture of our 4 basic „modus operandi‟ (ways of operating). The “V” inside the heart and the small-cased “b” around the person picture our spirit‟s concerns. The “b” represents what we believe about our world. Not THE world, just OUR world that we perceive has impacted us personally (or will). It‟s a small-cased “b” because it may only be our perception. Is the threat, benefit, loss or injustice real, right here and now? Maybe. Maybe not. But this is sure: whatever we believe about our world flows from what we value in our spirit. Jesus calls these our „treasure‟. (Matthew 6:21) I colored the “V” in the heart gold/yellow to cue us to wonder, “are my treasures „solid gold‟ to be valued or „caution lights‟ signaling danger?” Every Christian values some Good and (due to our sinful nature) some self-destructive things. But under stress we tend to focus on whatever we feel most powerfully in the relational context. The hands remind us that each of us always perceives our world to be in someone‟s hands. There are two hands to remind us of two types of relationships with different levels of trust and commitment: „family‟ (by blood or choice) for loyalties or „social‟ circles for opportunities. Think about that. If you were to “re-spect” (re-look) what you are valuing, who seems to be holding your world, and how you are responding, how could that change your beliefs and feelings? 8 Our bodies, like thermometers, measure the „heat‟ of feeling bad (afraid), mad, sad or glad when we‟re focused on our treasure in someone‟s hands.