Weekly e-News April 20, 2018

Hey, everyone!

What a beautiful day ahead! The only way to make it better is to just add praise and a bucket full of thankfulness!

I almost ruined an awesome day recently tho’…

“How could you ruin a day as beautiful as this?!”

So, the Knoxville Covenant Health Marathon was on a Sunday a few weeks ago…

You have to go to the Knoxville Convention Center on Saturday and pick up all the stuff they give you…Your number and four safety pins, your T-shirt with “Knoxville Covenant Health Marathon 2018” on it, a ticket to a Smokies game(!), granola bars (for some reason)…

And there was this stuff called “Utterly Smooth” and it came in this little poach-y thing.

I learned a secret to running those long-ish races a few years ago. After eleven miles or so, if you stuff a half’a banana or a cookie in your face every three miles, it really helps keep your energy level up so you don’t “hit the wall”, which means “run outta gas”. Lots of times, instead of a banana, they have this stuff called “Goo” in various flavors. It’s somewhere between runny fudge and pudding you left out of the fridge overnight. Chocolate’s the best, and it comes in a little poach-y thing like ketchup at McD’s. You just rip the corner off, shove in your mouth, and squeeze!

So, with a thankful heart, I slipped that “Utterly Smooth” in the pocket of my shorts for the right moment along the course…And forgot about it.

Since they had tables with bananas, jelly beans, and goos, I didn’t need my secret
‘pick-me-up” and didn’t think about it till Tina and I were walking (slooooowly!) to the car when it was all over…

I thought about my “Utterly Smooth”, reached for it, and thought about slamming it, when Tina said…

“Wait!!”

“What?!”

“You don’t EAT that!”

“You don’t!?”

“NO! It’s ‘Utterly Smooth body lotion’ !!”

“Whoa!”, I thought! “I don’t know what ‘body lotion’ is, but it doesn’t sound tasty!”

Then we both thought together…

“What if I’da pulled it out without knowing it at…say…mile seventeen, and scushed it into my mouth? And swallowed it?!”

We both thought of the image of a tired, sweaty me, leaning over losing my cookies…and bananas…and body lotion…by the side of the road. And not making it to Neyland and the finish line…

Thank you, Lord that I forgot about it! And that Tina knew what “Utterly Smooth” is for (I still don’t completely understand what you do with it!), and that she stopped me at just the right moment!

These are the lessons I learned…

1) If you’re going to make “Utterly Smooth” such that it could wind up in a runner’s bag of junk they give out before a race, don’t put it in those poach-y things that ketchup…AND GOO!…comes in. And don’t use brown, chocolate color letters on the package…

2) The words, “Utterly Smooth” are big enough, but the words “Body Lotion” shouldn’t be in tiny, little letters. Those words should be WAY bigger! People running races aren’t wearing their glasses…

3) Jesus said “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of  your mouth that defiles you…” (Matthew 15). What He meant was that there isn’t anything that you could eat that would make you “defiled”…ie., morally worse. Some people believe that eating certain types of food can contaminate your heart. 

Jesus says, “Not so!”

But He told us that what matters is what comes out of that mouth! What comes out of my mouth…and not what goes in it…can make me a worse person. 

F’r example…

Complaining! Complaining is an implicit confession of faith. Or “unfaith”. I’m saying…without saying it…“God doesn’t know what He’s doing! And/or He doesn’t care about me!” You can’t believe that without being the worse for it!

Or if subtle bragging about myself and my #blessed life comes out of my mouth (or thumbs on instagram!)…or self-righteous and opinionated criticism of someone pops out of my face (or on a FB rant!)…

…Peter says “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble…” And my prideful words send me over to the opposing side! I can’t say that mess without being the worse for it!

The stuff I say can hurt not only other people, but also…and mostly…me! 

It’s the stuff that comes out of that mouth…

and not the stuff that goes in it…

that make a person worse for it!

But, I bet if you eat body lotion, something bad WOULD happen.