Week 1 in review
Looking back on the first week of the quest, I need to express how thankful I am for the Bible, family, and friends. Speaking of friends, one of my Christian brothers gave me the best advice this week. It sounded almost cliche at first, but it has proven invaluable.
Bible
For my personal Bible study – not so personal since it’s all online for your reading pleasure (or frustration) – I read through James. I read through James 1 many times and the rest of the book at least twice, maybe three times. I had hoped to complete the study in a week. After all, James is not a lengthy tome. But looks like it might be a few more weeks to really get through the meat of the book. Separately, in the evenings, John and I read at least a chapter of Joshua each day.
Exercise
If you read the initial entry in this series, simply entitled, The Quest, you’ll know my wife is hoping to run a marathon with me in 2023. To that end, we put up some good miles this week. Keep in mind, this was her first week running in a long, long time. Here’s what the exercise looked like this week:
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Ran 6 miles | Ran 6 miles | Ran 4 miles | Ran 6 miles | |||
| Core Routine | Core Routine | Core Routine | Core Routine | Core Routine | Core Routine | Core Routine |
| Body Weight W/O | Body Weight (Fail) | Body Weight W/O | ||||
| Stretch | Stretch | Stretch | Stretch | Stretch |
In all, we got a total of 22 miles running our first week. A great start!
Abstaining from alcohol
I mentioned in the post from Day 2.1 that I have only been consistent in being an inconsistent rascal. I am happy to say, though, that I went through the week without any booze of any kind. This was not an effort of will. It has been pretty amazing. The fact is, it has been simple.
Why?
The best advice comes from true brothers speaking the truth in love.
Before I started this whole quest thing, I talked to a Christian brother of mine. I’ll drop his name after I ask his permission. I haven’t done so yet. He stopped drinking probably a year ago. Anyway, I explained to him what I purposed to do with the quest. I told him, “I might need some tips from you on avoiding beer if things get hard while I’m doing this. His response was so straightforward and simple, I was almost offended by it. Oh, how the Lord can work on your heart, even when you think you are just chewing the fat!
“Give your drinking to Jesus,” he said. “I don’t think I have any advice if you’re doing any other kind of thing.” That was his best advice.
The power of giving it all away
Seems simple right? Seems maybe a bit odd? I’m not an alcoholic trying to piece my life back together after ruining my family, career, and friendships!
I was almost offended.
How dare he?! But, no. I smiled and laughed a bit. Then, I thought it over. Give drinking to Jesus? It was, after all, the only and best advice I had sought or received. So that’s what I did. I prayed the Lord would take away all desire for it, and it wouldn’t hinder me from my quest goals. I didn’t even think about it being part of the quest.
Now, it’s only been a week. When Christmas get-togethers come along, I might struggle with social pressure from old friends I haven’t seen in a year, etc. That situation hasn’t yet come up. What I can say for right now is that I haven’t struggled at all. It has been simple. In only a week, my love of being up at 0400 making coffee and anticipating my time studying the word has trumped any notion of taking a drink at each day’s end. It really was the best advice!
Reading with kids
John and I also finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on Thursday . We started The Magician’s Nephew Friday evening.
Separately, I have started reading Calvin’s Institutes. Only in the introduction right now. Man, Calvin was on fire! His intro is downright salty. Maybe I can take some time to go through some of his thoughts in future. Also, recently I read Athanasius’ On the Incarnation. If I go through any book anytime soon for this site. I will probably start with that one. For now, though, keeping up with the Bible study and daily requirements of the quest seems to eat up most of my time.
Reading for fun
Also, I am conflicted. I want to read the Institutes, but I also want to read Luther’s Bondage of the Will. Aside from that, I want to read Eusibius, Jonathon Edwards, and others. The problem is there is only so much time in each day. Also, for some unknown reason I require a solid six hours of sleep. It’s frustrating.
I think I need to envision reading like I do running. When you want to run really long distances, one of the primary training rules is getting time on your feet. It’s cumulative. Time on your feet, in constant, ever increasing distances over an extended period of time makes running 50 miles something you can go for with confidence.
It’s a metaphor for the steadfastness we discussed on Day 7.1. I have so many books I want to read, but they won’t get read if I worry about reading the right book each night. I just need to start reading the pages of one. Eventually I will have read them all.
Creativity
Last Saturday, on the eve of my 44th, I said I wanted to hold myself to: write, build, repair, organize, etc., something each day. I can happily say that I have written every day. In fact, if I look at my posts, I wrote 14 posts last week. Maybe that’s too many. Probably no one will ever read them. I always wanted to keep a journal, and have never stuck to it. I figure, if nothing else, that’s what this site can be.
