Getting Your Head in the Game

About a year ago, I started watching "The Biggest Loser."  I figured that I could use all the motivation I could get to continue my weight loss, and I definitely haven't been disappointed.  It has convinced me to put down extra servings when I know that I really don't need them, and to get my lazy butt to the gym when it would be easier (and warmer) just to stay home in my PJs.  I love being able to vicariously experience their transformations -- both physical and emotional.  It helps me to realize that just about anything is possible, if you set your mind to it.

It's taken me a long time even to begin to realize what that statement really means.   Far too many times in the past, I've decided I want to accomplish something (be it losing weight, keeping my house clean, *ahem* writing a blog, etc.), but after a week or two, I find that I've either lost interest or let life get in the way.  I fall back into old patterns of behavior, and I'm no better than I was before.  In fact, sometimes I'm worse, because I add discouragement into the mix of bad habits.  But I've started noticing something on shows like "The Biggest Loser" and "Clean This House" (which I also love).  Inevitably at some point within the show, somebody has a breakthrough.  They have what I lovingly refer to as a "facepalm" moment -- they have a wonderful flash of clarity when they realize that things can be different, and the way that they had been living was, frankly, asinine.  They start believing in the fact that they're worth the effort that it's going to take to turn their lives around, and start to see the steps they need to take to make that happen.

OK.  I can't help it.  I'm going to go all "academic" for a second.  Bear with me -- it's a great point.  One of my favorite words in all of Biblical Greek is metanoia.  It's the word that is pretty much always translated in Bibles as "repentance."  But 20th/21st century Christianity, in my opinion, has really cheapened the meaning of that word.  Too often we think of repentance merely as feeling sorry for the bad stuff you've done.  Not so.  Doesn't even scratch the surface.  The literal meaning of the word is "to change one's mind."  Or, as one of my handy-dandy Greek Lexicons says (yes, I actually looked it up), "to change one's way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness."  In other words, it's a complete revolution in understanding that leads to a complete revolution in lifestyle.  When Jesus and Paul and Peter and all the other Bible guys were using this word, they didn't mean it in terms of the Sunday-School quick fix.  It's about an entirely different way of life -- it's about realizing that our old way of doing it (whatever "it" may be) just doesn't cut it, and to turn our back on that way so that we can plug into the fullness of the way that God has set up.  It's that "facepalm" moment that I was talking about before.  And nothing, nothing in our lives is ever truly going to change until this happens.  Sure, we can put on a good front, and we can make it look like we're doing what we need to do because we "need to do it."  But let me ask you something: how many people have you seen who have lost an amazing amount of weight put it right back on again?  How many people have you seen who have reorganized their lives fall back into the old same bad habits?  I am fully convinced that unless we truly experience that metanoia, we can't make a lasting change in our lives. 

That's why Bob and Jillian keep pressing each season's competitors until they're literally in tears.  That's why Jesus kept harping on the idea of repentance.  Nothing can change until we "set our minds to it."  But, like I said, when we do, just about anything is possible.