WOW! 20% done.  1/5 of the way there.

If this were a marathon, 20% is 5.2 miles….of 26.

If this were an ultra-marathon, 100 miles…this wouldn’t even be the first 26 miles.

Of the people that start the HURT (Hawaiian Ultra Running Team) 100 race, over 20% or so finish.  But that is like 21, 22, 29 out of 100!

In my 100 days, I’ve already fallen very behind in my Bible reading.  I’ve had to compromise on my Daniel Fast because I need more protein, and I am not getting enough from plant protein.  I’ve missed one day of 30 minute movement, because I was so sore from the previous day’s walking on the beach.  I’ve messed up my continuous 100 days.

So – quit.  Why bother? What’s the point?  I’m behind on the race! I can’t catch up!

Ah – diets…a good example of quitting.  I have no idea how many other people start diets and then give up because they mess up…BUT, me, well, I know I do.  “I ate two cookies, I might as well finish the bag so they aren’t a temptation tomorrow!” HA!

Millions of people make New Year’s Resolutions on Jan 1, and by Feb 1(at the latest) they are broken. Hmm, how did they get broken?  Did they fall off the mantle, and crash to the tile floor?  Oops!  No. They weren’t broken, like some accident, they were thrown away.  Sometimes gently, sometimes with full angry force, thrown against the wall with screams of ‘I CAN’T DO THIS!’.  But even that scream didn’t BREAK the resolution…the next day broke the resolution, the resolve of the person.  Waking up, with the headache, the stomach ache, whatever, and thinking “I’m a failure.”  THAT BROKE THE PERSON’S RESOLVE!!

Then there are the little voices in our heads from childhood, and the photos on the magazines of those that kept their resolve and lost 100’s or more…or tackled the Appalachian Trail – barefoot…or climbed a volcanic mountain – while erupting…or whatever.  “Wow – that person really had resolve(self-control, will-power)!”

Maybe. Every person that succeeds first fails. Repeatedly fails. The difference is that they get back up, and do it again, and again, and again, until “Oh look! they made it to the top of the mountain!”.

20% doesn’t seem like much.

• 20 days doesn’t even make a new habit! (referring to, “it takes 21 days of consistent behavior modification to create a new habit”).
• The majority of 20 year olds will not make it to be 100 year olds.
• 20% of a year is 2.4 months…January is only 1/12th, 8%!
• 20% of the way to my son’s house is 229 miles.
• 1 in 5(or 20%) of people having gastric bypass surgery will develop severe complications or death.(this was told to me by the doctor that was going to do my gastric bypass – I passed!).
• 20% off is a good discount, right?

The value of 20% depends upon the circumstances to which it refers. The other way to look at it is, if I were on my way to my son’s house, I would be 229 miles closer than when I started.  If I lost 20% of my weight, that would be 50 pounds.  THAT’S A FIRST GRADER! And losing 50 pounds would almost get me half way to my goal weight! That 20% would be almost 50% of my goal.  50% is a BIG percentage!

What value is your life? And what in your life do you value?  We’re told it’s shown by our priorities.

Priorities….what is the number one thing in my life?  I say Jesus, but then I yield to the flesh (or someone inviting me to play a game on facebook, or take me out to dinner, or whatever excuse to turn me away from my focus).

Rom 7:15-17 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

Rom 7:18-20 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Rom 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

This is Paul writing – one of the most devoted followers of Christ.  He was chosen by Christ…not by men, after Christ’s death and resurrection.  Paul shares the story in  Acts 26.  Paul struggles with doing the right thing! Paul lists all his fleshly credentials in Phil 3.

I want to do the Bible reading in 90 days…to wash my mind with the water of the word in the first 90 days…but I fail.  I choose to watch stupid TV shows.

I want to move for 30 minutes of every day.  I have a dog that needs a walk every day.  I have videos that would get 30 minutes in every day. 30 minutes out of 1440 a day = 2%.  I struggle with just sitting down – and doing nothing.

I want to eat right – to take care of my temple(a blog coming) and to glorify God and feel better.  I still struggle with wanting whatever is sold to me in commercials, magazines, or even store flyers!

I feel better when I eat right, move right and read right.  I thought that positive reinforcement should strengthen my resolve!  I feel sick when I eat ice cream.  That type of negative reinforcement should strengthen my resolve. 

THEN TELL ME WHY AM I CRAVING CHICK-FIL-A  PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE CHIP MILKSHAKES?

These photos were my true confession last November…for my 1 time guilty pleasure.  Yeah, right.  Then another, and another, and another…all through the season.  In fact, I even ate one on Dec 31, as my last peppermint chocolate milk shake….like my last meal.  I got terribly sick!  My stomach told me that ice cream is NOT my friend.  And still, we drive past it, and I think, hmmm, do they still have them?

I missed 1 day of movement during this 20 days. 5%

I am 3 days behind in the Bible Reading – 15% of what I’ve supposed to have read.  3% of the whole 90 day reading plan. And it only takes 30 minutes…or 2% of my daily quota of minutes!

So, I’ve messed up…in this 20% of my 100 days.  I am tempted to quit.  Until I do the math.

DO THE MATH!

People die because they eat the wrong stuff and don’t move. It cuts down a person’s odds for living any kind of life. Just read the statistics for heart disease, diabetes and such that often comes hand-in-hand with life choices.

Christians fail to grow into Christ by not reading His word.

Ps 119:105 Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Ps 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Pro 29:18 Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.

People go to hell because they don’t know the Lord. Matt 7:21-23

We struggle.  Period.

Rom 7:22-23 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

At first glance, Paul’s writing here is depressing!

Rom 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

THANK GOD WE HAVE THE ANSWER!

Rom 7:25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

HERE IT IS…THE BIGGIE!

Rom 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

AMEN! HALLELUJAH!!!  PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Rom 8:10-11 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Jesus said “It is finished.”  There’s a period at the end of his statement.  He IS the author and the finisher of our faith.  All we have to do is run the race.  And if we fall, he’ll pick us back up…I said, HE’LL PICK US BACK UP!!! and then, we brush ourselves off, and keep on running.

The one that doesn’t make it in is the one that never got in the race, or the one that quit and walked away.

It doesn’t matter how many times we fall down, what matters is that we keep putting one foot in front of the other…working and walking towards glory, closer and closer each day.

Do I sin like I did when I was 18 and in the Navy? No, sir!

Do I sin like I did when I was an exhausted mom of 5 toddlers?  No, Ma’am!

Do I sin? Yes sir and ma’am, every day.  But by the grace of God, my sins are forgiven, and I …..well, I’ll say it with Paul:

Phil 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

All that matters, once you have that saving relationship with Christ, is that you get back up after you fall down.  Grab a hold of HIS words for you, and cling to them like they are your life, for they are.

When the devil comes around to condemn you…find your scripture to answer with.  If that’s what was good enough for Jesus did, then it’s good enough for me!(tic)  We are seated in the heavenlies..we have been given the victory…let’s not give it away, whether in life, health or spiritual walk.  Jesus bought this victory because he said we were worth it – we are worth it because HE chose us – therefore this race is worth running, to the very end.

Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering; (for he [is] faithful that promised;)

1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, [even] our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Rev 2 and 3 talk about all the rewards for overcoming…and holding fast to the end.

Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

What is 20%?  What is 50%? What is 80%? What counts is where we stand on the day we meet Jesus face to face.  I’ve written about races before…the crown isn’t to the first…but in our race, everyone that finishes receives a crown..the crown of life. These verses were written by the same Paul that talks about having trouble with his flesh.

1 Cor 9:24-25Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

1Cor 9:26-27 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Christianity is a race.  A race is hard work. It takes training.  It takes a plan.  It takes daily, bringing yourself under subjection…which means that something doesn’t want to submit! The race isn’t to the strong…or the pretty…or the most vocal.  The race is to those that keep on keeping on…until the end. To Him that overcometh…..

Heb 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jude 24-25 Now unto Him that is able to KEEP YOU FROM FALLING, and to present you FAULTLESS before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. AMEN!

I know this one is VERY long…but I hope it’s been worth it for you, it has for me.  I’m going to complete day 20, and walk on to day 21.  Then, on day 21, I’m going to walk step by step, until I wake up to day 22.  And I’ll just keep doing that over and over until I see Jesus!

Thanks for joining me in this journey,

In His hands and under His wings,

~Christi

Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

1. 100 days challenge – moving – check my goal, walk 30 minutes.
2. 100 days challenge- blog – check
3. 90 days Bible Reading – I’m going to reset my program.
4. 50 days T-Tapp – check
5. 21 days Fasting for Food – check – 1 more days!