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HomedisciplineYou're doing it wrong

You’re doing it wrong

I was sinking my teeth in to a book (Hard to Believe by John MacArthur) last night and couldn’t help but use some of what I read in today’s blog post. But first a little about the book… “This book is MacArthur’s unflinching, unapologetic, treatise on the modern tendency to alter the true message of Christianity in order to meet the whims and desires of a culture hoping for non-confrontational messages, easy answers, and superficial commitments.”

Don’t worry non-Christians, today’s post isn’t going to be uber spiritual (although I have no problem admitting I love me some Jesus). That said, I do think there was at least one message communicated in Hard To Believe, that applies to everyone, and that message my friends is this: We suck.

Here are three aspects of my life in which I suck…

Christianity:

Ha, more religious blabbering. In recent years, Christianity has become extremely political. One church says “Do this” another “Do that.” So what do I end up doing? Nothing. I become stagnant because no one (or no church) seems to know what the heck they are talking about. The political aspects of Christianity are unbearable. Fortunately, I have a solution to this problem. If I deny myself  (meaning I get out of my own way), Christ will work in me. And if you deny yourself, Christ will work in you. Multiply this by the entire Christian population and suddenly there are no more church politics. Everyone will be on the same page, because everyone will be on Christ’s page. Unfortunately, we tend to do just the opposite. We deny Christ and inflate ourselves. If Christians stopped sucking, the world would be a better place. Period.

Finances:

Of course finances was going to make the list 🙂 After all, this blog is called Punch Debt In The Face and not Punch Christians In The Face. I make terrible financial decisions daily. Yesterday’s was spending $8 at Burger King, when Burger King should have paid me $8 to eat that garbage (I know what you’re thinking…who goes to Germany and eats Burger King?).

Personal Finance is going to be a part of my life as long as I’m alive. It’s in my best compound interest to learn as much as I can and be proactive. Don’t be fooled, getting out of debt is NOT enough. In fact, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you become stagnant or lazy in regards to your personal finances, you should expect nothing but stagnant results. Intentional saving/spending/investing/giving is the only way to ensure success.

Health:

I’d like to pretend that I’m really healthy, but something inside me says that would be a lying…especially since I just finished a bottle of Coke. Being healthy, when you really think about it, is quite simple. Eat foods that won’t kill you and work out a few times a week. That’s it. But why are those two simple tasks so hard to do? My hunch is that it’s a lack of discipline. I think this is particularly true for those of us that are naturally skinny. I can eat just about anything I want and exercise sporadically without really packing on any extra weight. It’s one of the perks of being young. I trick myself in to thinking I’m being healthy, just because I’m not overweight. But I know as I age, and my metabolism starts to slow down, I will have to make some adjustments to my diet and my activity level if I want to stay trim. What’s that phrase again “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”, well in this case…”The road to a heart attack is paved with fast food and Dr. Pepper.”

Alright, I’ve been honest with you all, now it’s your turn to be honest with me. What are some aspects of your life that you admittedly “suck” in (relationships, organization, faith, money, etc)? What are you doing to try and suck less? Why are the easiest things sometimes the hardest to do?

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26 COMMENTS

  1. I can relate to your sucking at being healthy. I need to eat better and exercise more, and I’ve done a bit better recently. I just struggle with working out because it’s boring. I’d much rather play sports, which is why I need to find some kind of sports league to join and start getting in shape again.

  2. just an FYI, your metabolism is you ability to burn calories associated with the amount of muscle mass you have. your metabolism will only decrease if your muscle mass decreases, which happens with age. thats why some type of weight lifting is essential to any workout program.

    i suck at sharing and discussing my feelings

    • That is a very technical way to look at it. There are lots of people who are really skinny because they have a high metabolism which can not be linked to either calories in or muscle mass.

  3. I am absolutely terrible at maintaining friendships. I can make friends, and I’m a pretty darn good friend when you’re right in front of me, but move away, or get busy with your regular life, and my suckage takes over. I hate talking on the phone, email makes me nervous, and my phone is never charged enough for me to send or receive text messages.

    My best friend and I have been best friends for 10 years now, and I figure at least 80% of that is because our friendship doesn’t require much “tending”. Every time we see one another, we pick up where we left off a few months before. Rinse and repeat.

    • This is mine, too! I’m a terrible maintainer. I make friends easily, am fun to be around, enjoy seeing other people, but when it comes to phone calls, emails, texts…forget it. I’m awful! My best best friends are the same way. I’m MOH in my best friend from college’s wedding, and we see each other about twice a year. Each time we pick up exactly where we left off and love each other to pieces!

      I just can’t maintain. I need to work on it!!!

  4. I have a hard time giving up stuff…I move it from room to room like it will magically fit somewhere out of the way.
    I can’t give up things like DN first writings from grade school, sisterninja’s doll collection and broninja’s music and clothing collections.

    While I will strive to get better I am still in the move from space to space zone and just taking it one sentimental step at a time.

  5. I get the whole thing about the church being political and full of group think issues. This has caused me more headaches than anything else. I can’t stand going into a church and having the following conversation:

    Me: “So why do you believe [Insert some teaching not found in scripture like for example the current tithe teachings]?”
    Person/Leader: “Because the Bible teaches it.”
    Me: “Could you show me?”
    Person/Leader: “[Pulls scripture out of context]”
    Me: “But that’s not what it is saying. [Explains what the context is]”

    This leads to two paths:

    If they agree that I am correct, then they tend to say something like “Love is the most important thing” or some other cop out to avoid the issue.

    If they disagree, they tend to look to an authority figure and say “Well he’s smarter and if this was an issue, he would have noticed it” or they talk about some mysterious “principle” that is proof that they are correct. Of course, there is no such principle.

    Sorry to vent so much, but it really does such that I can’t go to church will feeling like I’m hearing nails on a chalkboard. On top of that, I have trouble dating, because all the christian girls I meet seem to have the “can’t we all just get along (even if it means teaching lies)” attitude.

    (BTW, tithing isn’t the only issue. It just happens to be an error I see in almost every church I go to).

    • totally understand where you are coming from. Important thing to remember though is that the church is really just an accumulation of messed up sinners…you and me included. It’s no wonder there are problems with it. We can’t let the human shortcoming taint the importance of being in a community of like minded (or at least semi like minded) individuals.

      • Very true, I think that every year I get a little softer. I guess the issue I have is one of criteria. I wanted to find a church that got what I think is the easy stuff right. To use a book analogy, an easy question would be:

        “Who wrote Tom Sawyer?” This is what I call obvious and easy stuff. The only way to get this type of question wrong is to not read the book (or in this case look at the cover). If somebody said: “It was Abe Lincoln” and everyone agreed because the lie was said enough, that would feel like nails on a chalkboard to me. I might say “But the cover says it is Mark Twain” and someone responds “I know but the key thing is understand the meaning of the book.” How would you feel about that person? What if I told you he was being paid to teach your kids?

        Balance is important. I don’t think being critical and faultfinding is the answer, but we should stand for the truth. What would have happened if Jesus had said “I know that the current leadership teaches errors, but keep following those errors because love is what is most important”? He told us to respect the leadership but to avoid teachings that are not true.

        In the end, I guess I’m afraid that I will be “trapped” into a group that I have key disagreements with. I will be unable to move into a leadership position because of these disagreements and if I get married, the idea of changing churches would seem impossible. It just seems wrong to treat church like I would treat a book club or bar that I go to just because I like the people there.

          • LOL, thanks. In time, I think I will settle down with a church full of loving people who know we are saved by grace, and there are a lot of good ones =)

            “Never let your schooling interfere with your education.”
            -Mark Twain

    • For me you fail to answer the most important question…why do you feel the need to go to church?

      Personally I think the purpose of religion was at one time to provide firm laws for our societies to abide. Flash forward to modern times and we already have a myriad of laws to govern us which our society has placed more importance on than the laws of any religion, regardless if the origins of these laws were religious or not.

      So without the need for religion to govern our society, what place does it have? I see it as being a means of providing hope, providing meaning to life, and to answer unanswerable questions. Aside from that I don’t really see the value in it as science has pretty much debunked the stories contained in the bible. I believe that some of these people probably existed, but that the stories associated with them have been blown way out of proportion.

      I was just thinking that maybe those of us who do not follow any religion may have more to look forward to in death because we don’t know what will happen where as those who follow religion are pretty secure in their views of the afterlife. But that is more of an aside.

      • I don’t feel the need to go to church. I choose to (and want to) go. Nothing more, nothing less. p.s. I agree religion sucks. Jesus doesn’t 🙂

  6. As far as religion — I solved that problem by joining a Unitarian Universalist church. Their philosophy is something akin to “whatever you want to believe, that’s cool, man, as long as its based on love and peace and compassion and values.” There’s no insistence on dogma.

    And for health — I can eat healthy at home. But when I go out to eat, it’s fried chicken with sausage gravy, all the way.

    • “Beleive whatever you want believe” = moral relavitism. Moral relavitism is not logical because there are always absolutes. What are you comparing your “good” beliefs against and how do you know they are good? How do you know what peace and compassion are if you do not benchmark against an absolute?

  7. I am great at things that I have some control over such as health, finances etc. I suck at dealing with things I do not have control. I get frustrated, lose my patience and get quite angry.

  8. Hahaha your title reminded me of a story involving a friend of mine who was told he wasn’t “doing it right” by a female “friend”. I know you like to keep this blog PG/PG-13 so I won’t go any further…

  9. I’m jumping on the “being healthier” bandwagon here. I got through spurts of good/bad in this realm. Currently coming out of a month-long “I suck” phase. The one thing I’m good at? Consistent inconsistency!

  10. I suck at work. I work in Insurance and Australia has been hit by some terrible natural disasters recently and I am so burnt out right now, my work is slipping and I’m feeling very apathetic to it all which isn’t a good thing in my line of work. I’m trying to pull myself up right now, but it’s hard.

  11. I suck at being organized. I used to think I was really super organized, so either I was totally wrong or I’ve become less organized over the years. I honestly think my husband’s disorganization has contributed to my fall from organizational grace. I’m not planning to live in a separate house from him, though, so my first step is to get rid of all the junk we own that we don’t need or use. That’s a daunting task.

    Also, I’m glad your blog isn’t called Punch Christians in the Face. We might need it sometimes, but let’s not live there. (:

  12. I suck at living in the moment. I’m always planning for the future and am scared that one day, the future will be here, I’ll be old, and I didn’t take any ME time along the way to follow a dream.

    I suck at caring for my lawn. It gets all overgrown, then I never feel like doing anything about it.

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