Chasing Tom Turkey on My Elliptical

Getting Beyond “Break-Even” Living! 

I got a little tickled at my self tonight. I made this lovely carmel cake for my sweet work staff. It has no less than 1-1/2 cups of butter in it – Paula Deen would be so proud.

After spending a couple of hours making it (the icing takes FOREVER), I hopped on my elliptical machine for 30 minutes and burned 400 calories. Now lets just do a little calorific math. A decent sliver of that carmel cake probably has 300 calories in it, and that doesn’t count the left over icing the chef (me) got to enjoy. So if I am somewhat lucky tonight – I probably just broke even! 

So it is only Monday of Thanksgiving week. I can only imagine what Thursday may be like. I will be chasing Mr. Tom Turkey on my elliptical for miles just to break even! Do the math – breaking even on calories means no weight loss.  If we can just maintain through the holidays, we are golden, right?

What about break-even Christians? When I look back over the past year, I wonder if I have made any forward progress. There will always be those times when I bauble a little, but at the end of the day, am I closer to Christ? Just maintaining status quo in this relationship is robbing myself of abundant life.

Paul challenges us beyond break-even thinking with this verse:

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14

No, I don’t think Paul prescribed to break-even thinking or living.  If we do not press on, we will not win the prize, we will not experience all Christ has to offer. No progress…

Pressing on is not at all about maintaining status quo. It is about making progress. In my own life, status quo thinking creeps in quietly and tells me, “Everything is just fine. Let things go on auto-pilot for awhile.” That is such a dangerous place for any Christian to be.

No progress. No net gain. Just going through the motions. Just breaking even.

There is so much more to this walk with Christ than most of us are experiencing. We aren’t experiencing it because we are settling for status quo. John 10:10 says that Jesus came that we might have the abundant life. So this Thanksgiving, let’s allow Christ do the math.  Jesus takes what we bring to Him and multiplies it many times over. That is above and beyond breaking even!

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!