Ice Cream, Cookies, and Working Out—It’s Monday

“I told the cashier that I have three stressed out college students at home. I didn’t want him to think badly of me for buying two things of ice cream and a pack of cookies.”

It’s a Monday and with that comes the blues of, why in the world am I even here? Why am I trying? Is this all even worth it?

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
 1 Corinthians 9:24-26

I’m running a race; I’m “working out” to become better than I once was. Working out, if you want results, is exhausting, you want to quit and lie down, you feel pain that you don’t want to feel, and at times you feel like you’ve been pushed too hard. 

That’s how I’ve felt lately, like a quitter, and nobody likes to feel like a quitter.

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Ohhh yeah, I don’t have the strength to do any of this on my own. But I have this God that has already told me He’ll coach me, that He’ll give me the grace, the joy, and the peace I need from day-to-day.

That doesn’t mean it won’t be hard, that doesn’t mean I won’t struggle. But it does tell me that when I put too much weight on the bar He’ll help me lift it off my chest. When I feel like I’ve run too far He’ll give me the air to continue on.

These hard times are just the hill before the finish line, they’re that last lap, or that final hurdle.

When I look at life from the perspective that He’s in control of this race I’m running I realize,

 I ain’t no quitter, and this ain’t no part-time gym membership.

And what I truly have come to realize: cookies and ice cream are just marvelous.


"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31