Christ Walk LIVE!

Friends!

Come take a "Christ Walk" with me.  Church Publishing Inc has loaded a video about the program to their website and you can visit with me as I chat up the Christ Walk experience.

You will see me hot, sweaty, and walking the talk!

Check out my author profile as well on the Church Publishing website where you can learn a little more about me, my health and fitness philosophy and how YOU can join the Christ Walk experience.

Christmas is coming.  Lent is coming.  But most importantly, your Christ Walk is coming.  Join a journey to better mind, body and spiritual health.....AND bring your friends and family along for the ride!  Get your copy here.

~Anna

Today is the Day! It's All Bracket's Day!

Not to be confused with All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, or All Souls Day.  It is all Bracket's Day today. The Supreme Executive Committee over at Forward Movement Publications is releasing the "Lent Madness" bracket today of the Saints we will be studying this Lent.  As you know, I am one of their celebrity bloggers and hopefully shepherding my saints towards the golden halo.

It's up to YOU, dear reader, to help me get them there.

First, check out the bracket at Lent Madness and watch as Tim and Scott release the panel of Saints.

 

Second, get your churches involved in this fantastic study of the Christians that have shaped who we are in the church today.  We study saints to see how God has influenced the lives of others towards great acts of bravery, self-denial, and caring for the world.

Third, vote for MY beloved saints during the Lenten match-ups.  THE SAINTS you want to follow (and vote for) are:
1) Sister Constance and her Companions
2) Frances Joseph-Gaudet
3) St. Roch

You can bet my saints rocked the Christ Walk miles and made a journey with Christ that changed the world.

40 Things I've learned since turning 40

Yes, I know it is hard to believe, but I hit the 4-0 today.  In honor of my birthday, I thought I would try to sum up some big lessons I've learned on the road I am traveling.  Enjoy!

40.  Food is not the enemy.  Our attitude and what we have been taught about food frames our perception about it.  Bring joy back to the table and the anxiety that people have about food will be lessened (Also, eat real food:  life is too short for that processed crap.  Eat and Love, real food).

39. Don't feel guilty about exercise.  Exercise to enjoy what you are doing.  Exercise to put the body to work for God's work in the world and you will have more motivation to get up each day.  No exercise is worth it if it makes you feel less than you are.

38.  Learn to love you.  God made you for a reason.

37.  Cured and healed are not the same thing.  I am not cured of my disease, but I am very healthy in spite of it.  God heals.

36.  Stop and watch the butterflies.

35.  Enjoy color. I have a bad habit of watching the pavement when I run.  I push myself each time to identify colors around me in every season.

34.  The Bible tells us multiple times to "Trust in the Lord."  This is harder to do than it sounds.  Trust in God in the big and the small stuff.  I trust in God with my health every single day.  I trust in God with my anxiety every single day.  When I am overwhelmed, my trust in God somehow creates the hours I need to get it done.  This may be the most important lesson:  Trust in God in everything.

33.  There are some years I would rather have a re-do in my life:  years 38-39; 12-15; 17; 22-23, 30.  These weren't stellar years by my reckoning.  But if I stop, I realize I learned a lot during those years.  Even in the midst of crisis, learning and love bloom.  I cannot regret those years, they've made me who I am.

32. God really does love us and want us to be happy.  Love can come out of crappy things.

31.  Each moment, month, year, is just a splice out of the over-arching scope of our lives.  We shouldn't judge the quality of our life by moments.  Look at the big picture.

30.  However, don't miss the flowers, the trees, the children for the big picture.  God is the only absolute in life.  Everything else:  shades and nuance.

29.  Parenting is hard.  It's the hardest job I have ever had.  I am fairly sure my kids will identify many things I did wrong....just like I did with my own parents.  The good thing, they get to make their own mistakes trying to get it right.

28.  Apologies don't cost anything but my pride.

27.  My friends and family are my bedrock--you think I am a strong person?  It is only because I am built on the love of my friends and family.

26.  I love to travel.

25.  I love to read.

24.  I love to eat. I have a love affair with food.  I love chocolate.  Pizza is my deathbed food.

23.  I love coffee.  I love wine.  I love to share all these things with friends and fellowship.

22.  I LOVE my cochlear implants.  I am blessed that God gifted people with the brains to create the technology that let's me hear.  I love country music.  My only regret is that I can no longer sing. 

21.  My father taught me about the church.  My mother taught me about my faith.  These are important distinctions.  I don't always agree with the church, but my faith in God never waivers.

20.  It seems to me, on both sides of whatever political or theological fence you sit, there are a lot of people that hurl accusations, labels, derogatory comments, and untruths.  I wish we would all think a little about what we are saying.  You can defend your belief set without tearing someone down.  People rarely fit into the box in which labels put them and it builds resentment and walls.

19.  It's REALLY important to understand the Christian church's history.  The Christian faith IS influenced by history, society, and culture.  God may never change, but our understanding of God changes all the time based on the microcosm of our lives.

18.  I finally feel comfortable calling myself a writer.  I am not sure how I am a nurse AND a writer, but I am.  I am not very sure I am excessively good at either, but where your heart is, there also is your treasure.

17.  I'm fairly sure God has a lot more things to teach me.  Sometimes this scares me a lot.

16.  I've learned to see ministry where I am in life.  Sure, I'd love to hop on a plane and be a missionary in Haiti, or Africa, or somewhere, but it's equally important that I see a mission in my local community, and as a mother.  As a mother, I am raising (hopefully) the next members of the church. The church would die without mothers.

15.  I LOVE cooking in soup kitchens.

14.  My body is no longer 20 years old.  I REALLY do regret not enjoying it when I was that age.  The flip side is that I'm getting better about not putting myself down.  This is a pretty dang awesome body at 40 years.  It's got scars, and mileage, some stupid mistakes, some great children, and lots of love in it.  It may not be much, but I'm proud of what it's done.  I'm ok with myself these days (I am NOT okay with whiskers--that's just cruel and unusual punishment, and proof that God has a sense a humor).

13.  I am cherishing every moment my kids can still curl up in my lap.  Every year, I realize they are getting bigger and bigger.  It makes my heart ache a bit.  Time moves faster and faster the older you get.

12.  I wish I had been less judgmental in my 20-30s. I thought I knew it all. I am so sorry for those that had to deal with my judgement.  I hope I wasn't too overbearing.  And feel free to call me on my comments these days.  I learning to make myself a better person daily, just like you.

11.  I love that I have a zest for life.  I hope it never goes away.  I really do want to go out with a "WhooHoo" on my lips and a smile on my face.

10.  Life, work, and family balance is crucial to a healthy life.  If any of that gets out of balance, things go to pot.

9.  It's really important to identify for yourself what the most important things are in your life.  These can be your guideposts on where you spend your time.  For me, the most important things in my life are God, my Family and my health.

8.  You cannot divorce your spirituality from your physical and mental health.  It simply isn't possible.  If your spirit is sick, your body will suffer as well as your mind.

7.  Stress is a killer.  I am 99% sure my stress level contributed to my cancer diagnosis.  I am very good at sweating the small stuff.  I've learned it really isn't worth it.

6.  Stuff is just stuff.  It goes in the small stuff box.  Material stuff, career stuff, physical stuff.  It's just stuff.  It's not going with me to heaven.

5.  We don't think enough about heaven.  I think that some people think it's a given and therefore it is a foregone conclusion to life.  I am not 100% sure about that.  I continue to study, and pray about it, but I do think what we do in this world and how we act towards others is important.  How that all plays out in the end, I'll let you know when I get there, but I think we should all think about heaven a lot more.

4. It's okay not to have an answer or an opinion on everything going on in the church.  Discernment is a phase defined by careful study, prayer, conversations, and theological reflections.  You would be surprised the number of things I am unclear about in the church, and I am okay with that.  It goes back to the principal of: TRUST IN GOD.

3.  Work is good for the human body.

2.  Miracles happen every day.

1.  I am blessed beyond measure and understanding.  I have  far more than I could want or hope for in my life and I think it directly correlates to TRUST IN GOD.

I love all y'all.  Here is to 40 more beautiful years of work together.
~Anna

Day 365: A Year with Cancer

A year ago today, I got that call from the surgeon that the biopsy of my lymph-node was positive for follicular lymphoma.  The picture of that moment is seared on my brain.  I remember my husband sitting at the bar that overlooked our kitchen as he was working.  My children were chattering away upstairs--I remember hearing them.  I sat down on the foot of our staircase, and laughed at the surgeon, "You are joking right? I don't have cancer."  We hung up the phone.  Our farm box of veggies had just been delivered.  I remember stabbing the box with the kitchen shears trying to open it to put away the vegetables.  And I remember putting my head on that box and sobbing.  My son came in the kitchen just at that moment.  He bust into tears to see me crying.  I held him really tight I remember.  I couldn't imagine how to have this conversation with my family.  I couldn't bear to break the news to my mom.  Shock doesn't begin to cover what you feel. I am neither surprised, nor anything really that the gamut of my emotions followed the pattern of grief that is well identified by experts.  I find no comfort that how I have progressed through this experience meets the norms.  You never feel normal when you've been diagnosed with cancer.  And while many talk of "finding the new norm," I am not sure there will ever be a new norm.  Just like I am never sure that even if people go into remission, they "get rid" of having cancer.  You see, I have come to believe that whether I live for 40 years with this lymphoma, or at some point in the future I go into remission, I think that I have been undeniably changed by this experience.  In my minds' eye, I will always have cancer.  It is making me into who I am today.  I never expected it on my journey, but what do you know, it's making me.

I have not blogged over the last six months very much.  There have been a variety of reasons for this lapse.  One, I've been writing.  There will be two more books out by me in the new year, "Christ Walk Kids" and "Sally and the Constellations."  So there are successes to this story.

But I've also been silent because I have found that somewhere along the 6-11 month part of this journey, I looked into a mirror and saw a fractured image of myself.  I was there, but parts of me were broken.  To say I moved on from anger and frustration would be to lie to you.  I STILL get annoyed when I allow myself to think of my cancer.  Who has time for cancer?  It irritates me on the days it rears its head and says "slow down."  And being unable to do anything about the cancer, is a bit of a kick in the gut.   I don't always watch and wait well. God always seems to be trying to teach me the art of patience. I often fail miserably and I don't know that I will ever get over that.  Waiting is a part of that whole "new norm" thing that causes me to roll my eyes.  Waiting doesn't fit into the world view of the action hero I want to be when I grow up. The new norm forces you to think about your perceptions of yourself.

This new norm really forced me the last several months to stop and focus.  I really had to work with my doc on a means of living with cancer and still functioning, because it was tenuous at times.  Those broken bits of me kept trying to fall out.  And I found myself needing to apply glue to me.  And in a very private way, I needed to do it without blogging.

Glue comes in many shapes, forms, and substances.  It came in the form of prayer over the last year.  My own and others.  We pray as a family every night that God continues to take care of mommy's cancer--and thus far, God continues to show me grace in many ways.  Glue comes in the form of friends.  Those who were willing to listen.  Those who were willing to receive random texts about fear and anxiety.  Those who were a distraction.  Those who treated me like "Anna" so I could figure out how to treat myself like "Anna" again as well.  Glue comes from professionals who were patient enough to answer repeated questions of the same thing, that were a calm when new symptoms cropped up, and were unfailingly reassuring that watching was still the right thing to do.  Glue comes in the form of the mundane.  The pleasure of walking.  The pleasure of doing things with the kids.  The pleasure of writing.  The pleasure of still having value in the world although I am a broken, semi-repaired, cancer carrying, child of God.

You see a year ago when I was receiving this diagnosis, my book "Christ Walk" was being published.  I could not imagine that the book would do well.  Who wants to learn about living a fit, healthy, and spiritually fulfilled life from a cancer patient?  I was so afraid that this diagnosis was the end of my passion for health in the church.  I thought God had made a mockery of what I perceived was my calling in life.

But you know, God works in funny ways.  My book has gone on to do very well at Church Publishing, Inc.  They tell me I am one of their best sellers.  They've graciously decided to pick up my second book, "Christ Walk Kids."  And people want to hear my story of faith, fitness, and health.  You see, people desperately want to know they have value in the world, that they are needed and they are just as important when they have illness and disease.  Illness, cancer, disease--these labels are devaluing to what we think of ourselves.  We need to stop this.  EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US IS BROKEN, DISEASED, OR DAMAGED and we ALL have value in God's creation.  I can still be healthy: mind, body, and spirit; even with disease.  I really believe this.  My cancer is a part of me and my journey and will continue to be for a long time.

So this is where I am now a year later.  I am in a good place.  I exercise daily, but not always running and training for distance.  I pick things that feel good and bring me joy in movement. Each day, I search for the lovely in my life.   I am awed by God's grace.  When I feel anxious, or fearful of the future, I stuff glue in those pieces of me that want to fall out and pass the glue bottle to God to hold it all together. There is much I will never understand.  There is much I have little patience for, and when those failings come to get me, I remind myself that I do trust God more than I trust in my limited understanding and funnily, peace follows.

In two weeks, I go for my annual CT scans.  They will pump me full of radio-graphic material to see if anything lights up in my body as a new, or growing tumor.  They keep telling me that I'll know when things start to go south.  Huh.  I still look at them a little crazy when they tell me this.  It is so anathema to current medical practice not to treat when early detected.  Consequently, if you are the praying type (and if you are not, I ask that you consider it--it makes a huge difference!), I'll take your prayers.  I'm not sure to ask what to pray for?  Spontaneous remission (always good); continued status quo (also acceptable); patience with the "new norm" (okay); lots of glue bottles if things go south (eh, it could happen)?  I believe in prayer.  I'll take whatever you are willing to offer.

So, keep walking with me, I am still on this journey and we will continue to find faith, fitness, and health together.  I've decided to hold the hand of my cancer and bring it along with us.  It's teaching me a thing or two.  It might not have been the lessons I was seeking, but it's always teaching me.  I hope you are learning something too.

With love, and prayers for another 365 day report.....Anna

#LentMadness Blogger Panel Released!

ChristWalkers! 

I'll be hawking #LentMadness as well as my usual blogs on holistic health this Lent as I have been selected to blog with the #Lent Madness crew.  You can hear Fr. Tim Schenk and Fr. Scott Gunn talk all about it in the following YouTube video:

You can also read up on my lovely bio and the bios of my fellow bloggers on the LentMadenss website.

In other awesome news this week, keep your ears open for news about "Christ Walk Kids."  It's real, it's coming.  I am going to take your kids on a journey of a lifetime!

~~Anna

Lent Madness

 

Rumor has it, I've been invited to be a "Celebrity Blogger" for Lent Madness this winter.  How many ChristWalk steps do you think my saints will walk? I am really looking forward to the opportunity to stretch my blogging muscles, and I hope you will do ChristWalk AND Lent Madness for your devotional this Lenten season.

First off, you need to follow Lent Madness by clicking here.

Get your copy of the Saintly Scorecard when it's published so you can fill out your bracket during Lent.

Follow the Lent Madness blogs on the Saints that have spiritually formed the church.

Make sure you VOTE VOTE VOTE for the Christ Walk Saints.

If you'd like to see my "celebrity blogger" profile, along with my fellow authors, you can read all about us on the Celerity Blogger Tab.

I cannot WAIT to bring my own flavor of "Christ Walk" to the Lent Madness study.  It's sure to be a great time and I REALLY want to see you there. ~~Anna

Clergy Do Christ Walk

I cannot believe a week has come and gone and I have not told you about my amazing two days with the clergy of the West District of the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.  I have new peeps in Texas now, and I am loving those peeps.

We talked exercise, burdens, addictions, habits, change, society, the Bible, solutions, and creating a healthy church.  We talked FOOD.  We talked wine.  We talked fellowship and we talked how Christ is weaved into everything in our lives.  This group of men and women came together in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  Many different fitness levels and many, like me, who have illness that challenge their concept of health in light of a disease-ridden body.  Much like any group that comes together, we were all different and all beautiful creatures of God.  We learned how to expand our vision of Christ Walk and make it applicable to our everyday life as well as our churches.  Most importantly, we came together to build the consensus that mind, body, AND spiritual health are necessary for healthy Christian individuals.  The work of the clergy does not stop only at the soul.  These wonderful men and women saw themselves as mentors of physical and mental health and saw how they also had to take care of their own mind, body and spiritual health to be effective role models.

Day one started out with an introduction to Christ Walk.  We discussed change and health and how hard those concepts can be to apply in our busy lives.  We discussed addictions and negative health habits and how easy they are to fall back on when life gets tough.  We discussed the irony that when we need God most in our lives, we tend to turn to physical/human things (food, sugar, alcohol, drugs, stress, anger, etc) to cope, rather than turning to God.  We saw that each step we take physically should be a prayer of thanks and of building this temple of the human body towards God's service.

Later on that evening, we moved on to a theological reflection on the World Health Organizations (1979) definition of health:  "Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."  We all, 100% agreed that this definition was out of date, and lacks the spiritual importance of health.  One can be healthy, if not cured; and one can be cured, but not healthy because of the spiritual damage done by disease.  We discussed what society thinks about health.  And then we discussed what the Bible says about health.  There is a clear divide between what secular society sees as a healthy individual and what the Bible states we need to do to be healthy.  There is a lack of emphasis in the world around us about building strong bodies to do the work of God for others.  Our bodies are not our own.  Our bodies are here to do God's will.  We do not treat our bodies as though we were temples of the Holy Spirit.

The next day, we talked FOOD.  WE ALL LOVE FOOD.  But we all agree that we need to eat more of God's food and less food that's from an industrial plant.  As I love to say, God did not hang meal replacement bars from the trees in the Garden of Eden.  He gave us real food.  We need to enjoy that food and use it to NOURISH our bodies to do the work we are called to do, not FEED our emotions.  We discussed what a meal with Jesus would look like and what we would serve.  I am hungry as I write this.  A meal with Jesus would just be divine (pun intended).


Finally, I challenged the groups to write a prayer for a healthy church and goals to implement when they go back home.  I am going to share with you some of what they came up with in their small groups:

Group 1: 

A prayer for unity of a land and a people. 
Our hearts are heavy with the news not just from Baltimore, but also Ferguson, Watts, and other places.
God we are never separated from you, but we confess there are times we think we are; hear our prayer. 
God, there are times we think we are separated from each other, but we are connected-each to the other and we confess our intentionally created walls. 
God, we confess that too often we see these issues as "us verses them" when it's really "us verses us." 

God, heal our land and our destructive tendencies. 
Give us the courage to let you into our hearts. You who are the great healer, heal our land. 

Group 2: 

 O Lord, our God,

We are fragile,

Held us to be strong

We are frail, help us to lean on you.

We ask you to put us under the waterfall of your grace

And draw us ever closer to you in our suffering.

We seek health over healing as our 1st priority

Help us to feel our worth by becoming strong in mind, body, and spirit.

After all, we are broken and you are the potter.

Make us and mold us and put us back together through your healing power and love.

In Jesus' Name. Amen 

Group 3:

Gracious, loving and all powerful God.  Giver of life and freedom. 

We lean upon your everlasting arms to heal our bodies, spirits, emotions, and our land and world.

Continue to affirm in us that we are wonderfully made and your creation.

Born originals enhanced in your light, enabling us to be the witnesses you have called us to be.

Amen

Group 4: 

Father, God, I thank you for allowing me to be a part of your family. 

How awesome it is to be connected with the Savior and Holy Spirit.

It is our prayer that in Jesus name, your blessing will flow freely and richly in our lives 

as we come together in worshiping and serving you as clergy and teachers.

Thank you God for each of us that has a unique gift 

You have allowed them to be woven into who we are: our passions and our talents.

God, you have put it all together for a purpose and you have a very special plan for each to use.

Thank you God that you have put each of us in situations where we have to use these unique gifts.

I pray Father you will strengthen us with your power

 through your Spirit in our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our heart 

through our faith we rooted and established in love 

and to know your love that surpasses knowledge

 that fills us to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Amen. 

Group 5:

 God of grace and glory, we take delight today, in your presence.

We stand in silence before you because you know everything about us: broken mind and soul. 

 Please touch us.

Touch our soul, bodies and mind and heal us so we might serve you to our greatest ability. 

Keep us focused on the task that you would have us complete.

Gracious God heal us, collectively. 

Give us the courage to admit and confess the ways in which we have hurt and offended each other, 

and give us the humility to forgive. 

Make us one with each other and one in Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Group 6:

Oh God of Wholeness, we lift up our pastors in the spirit of wholeness,

 Where the body is broken, bring healing.

Where the mind is stressed, bring healing.

Where the spirit is wounded, bring healing.

And Where relationships are strained and severed, bring healing.

In the name of the Great physician.  Amen!

Group 7:

Lord, I lift my eyes unto the hills, from whence shall my help come?

In our brokeness, we cry out to you.

We confess we have not taken care of the body that you have entrusted to us.

We have given into our desires, in our moments of pain and weakness. 

Strengthen us, by the power of your spirit, to be good stewards of the body you have given us,

 the mind you have entrusted to us, and the spirit you have placed within us.

We are confident in your faithfulness.

My help is in the name of the Lord.  In You we are made whole.

Amen

Throughout both days we prayed, we laughed, we shared, we grieved, we cried, but we were healed. 

Through these two days, we Christ Walked together.  It was good.

I cannot wait for the next time.

--Anna