Turning Over a New Leaf

A family in my church gave me a membership to Planet Fitness for Christmas.  I had not used it until today.  This was due to several reasons, but the biggest one for me was that I did not want to be one of those people who show up at the gym after the New Year and then drop out after a month or so.  And so I waited for awhile.  And then I waited some more.  And then, before I knew it, a month had gone by and I was still sitting on my rear end, not going to the gym.

So today I bit the bullet and went.  I was member of a gym for a short time while I was a Pastor in Elysburg, PA.  And yes, in that case, I did exactly what I wrote about in the above paragraph.  That gym was small and intimate.  Planet Fitness is huge, and given the number of cars in parking lot every time I drive by, not to mention the dozens of people inside when I went tonight, it must be one of the most popular places in Pottstown.  My Lord, I would have hated to see how packed it must have been the first week of January!

Anyway, I spent 30 minutes doing some cardio on two different machines.  The one is a step machine and the other was a bike machine (sorry I don’t know their technical names).  After that I worked on my biceps and then my abs.  At this time I have no goal other than to get into the habit of exercising.  I am sure I will never be a “hunk” by anyone’s definition, but if I can lose a few pounds and feel a little healthier, then those things will be icing on the cake.

One of the good things about Planet Fitness is that it is open 24/7, so I can go at anytime I want.  That might come in handy for this night owl.  We will see. 

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Hope

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” — Howard Zinn (1922-2010)

 

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