Body... Recovery

One of the most-talked about "discoveries" this year, at least for amateur athletes, has been "recovery". Professional athletes have been using cycles of four-days-on, two-days-off for years, but how many amateur athletes have the time or patience to let their bodies just do nothing for two days, when an hour-long work-out in the morning is exceptional rather than minimal (especially those of us who have families and jobs that require physical activity)? Likewise for massage, saunas (who but a pro has the time or money?), and relaxation techniques.

But now there are some really good products and techniques on the market that don't cost a lot of money, and us amateurs can take advantage of them for a few minutes a day and still reap some significant benefits. My favorite in the past has been zen-style meditation with a decidedly Christian twist (I taught myself how to clear my mind before God seized me, but now that I am His I meditate on His Word, or pray to relax, rather than focusing on something meaningless or trying to find the "core" of my "being"), but this year I've been really impressed with a product called simply "The Stick" (http://www.thestick.com/ ). (I've got the link on my main page as well as here in this post.)

Maybe sometime I'll tell the story on here of how I intersected paths with that of a deer last year, on April 17th, 2008 (yes, I definitely do sympathize with Matt Lauer), but for now let's just say that the result of that crash left my left hip and lower back very stiff. Just running The Stick over those areas for a few minutes each day has helped bring back some flexibility and feeling, and the results for my legs have been significant as well. I actually don't worry as much about pushing too hard on my strength-interval days, because I know that I can get rid of most of the muscle soreness in my legs on that same day with The Stick, and what remains is usually gone by the third day I use it.

I got my "travel" model from an on-line retailer, but lots of sporting-goods stores and bike shops are starting to carry them (just google "the stick massage" to see lots of places to buy). I recommend the travel size as a good starter, since it costs less than $35 most places and is easy to shove into a gym-bag or suit-case, or carry with you in the car (using The Stick while driving is by no means recommended or endorsed by me -- use it once you get to your destination, or while your spouse drives!).

As God tells us in His Word (remembering the Sabbath day is part of The Ten Commandments and Old Testament law, and Jesus expounded on God's reasons for the Sabbath in the New Testament), "down" days are required of us as humans, and smart recovery depends on us taking the time to treat our bodies well. The Stick is a great invention, but it really just makes use of God's magnificent design of our bodies, including their ability to heal themselves and make themselves stronger.

Soul and Body... Discipline

I found this article on CNN interesting: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/27/fall.dogs.cats/index.html . Did you notice the quotes from the pet-expert (Dr. Doverspike) about how proper training (discipline) brings freedom to the pet itself, in that it knows what to expect?

Why do we want to reduce Godliness to a bunch of psychobabble and/or mysticism (the common theme seems to go something like, "if I just pray about it long enough then I'll feel 'convicted' of what's right"), when God has already provided detailed instructions, telling us exactly what He expects? Why do we as American Christians spend so much more time (and money) "watching" and listening to and reading the "news", and talk-shows, and gossip-magazines, than we do reading His Word and meditating on it? (I'm pretty sure I know the answer, so maybe I'll write about that some other time.)

Wise athletes (especially those of us who would be mediocre otherwise!) discipline their bodies through training, practice, and exercise; those who hunger and thirst after God discipline their hearts and minds through study and meditation on God's Word, through time in prayer, and through true fellowship (not just sitting around talking about the football game!) with other Christians.

Discipline is NOT a bad thing, for heart, mind, body, or soul -- we've just accepted the lie that it is. Growing in grace requires that we vehemently and completely reject such lies.

(Psalms 94:1-13 , Proverbs 3:11-12, Hebrews 12:5-13)

Mind... Our "simple" world

In my job as an engineer, I'm sometimes told that "you're making things complicated." I usually smile and finish my explanation, or try to explain in simpler or more meaningul terms, but what I really want to tell them is that our world is infinitely complicated on its own, and I just exposed a small portion of that complexity to them.

With apologies to all engineers, doctors, scholars, physicists, and anyone else thought to be intellectual out there, I'll share a closely-guarded secret: the world is infinitely complex, and so are the very simplest portions of it. What we engineers do is all based on modeling: we take an infinitely complex system and model it in terms which are so crude that we can understand them, hopefully in a way which will approximate the truth closely enough to allow us to predict some of the results of acting upon it. And engineers are not alone. Think your doctor thoroughly understands your body? Ask him or her to describe the quantum mechanics involved with keeping just one of your cells intact, or even to explain with certainty how any single drug will behave within any single patient on any given day.

As J.I. Packer wrote in his excellent work, Knowing God, what we know about someone or something becomes exponentially more complex as the someone or something becomes more complex. That is, it's easier to "know" a bug (or at least anticipate how it will behave in a given situation) than it is to "know" a horse, and it's almost impossible to really "know" a person (which is why we husbands have the blessing and challenge of continuing to study our wives, recognizing that their feelings and interests can and often do change throughout our lifetimes).

There are lots of reasons for this, including the fact that each mechanism within the physical world has an almost infinite number of parameters affecting its operation. Think of a drop of water running down a window-pane -- it can and will be affected by the size of the water droplet (which also affects surface-tension of the droplet and a host of other parameters), the slope of the window, the frictional coefficient of the window's surface, the gravitational pull on the droplet, the ambient temperature, the speed and direction of the wind, the amount and direction of light (photons), and on and on and on (it makes one's head spin!).

Why then are we surprised, as Christians who believe in an infinite, all-powerful God, that He is infinitely more wise and complex than we are? (My guess is that as limited creatures we get very uneasy, if we are honest with ourselves, with the realization that our sphere of control does not extend as far as our sphere of responsibility, even if it is "our" God who is in control of it all!) There is an aspect of doctrinal understanding that says that God does not just reign over His creation, He sustains it. That is, without His continuous, powerful control over all things, they would all fail within an instant.

The knowledge of this adds to my life one more blessed paradox -- that being confident of God's goodness and wisdom I can know that all things work together for true good, and yet I can have little confidence in the results of my own abilities (but for His grace). I've met engineers who were confident that any and every problem could be overcome if they just thought about it and worked on it long and hard enough, but that is just not the case. God is good in keeping His physical laws constant (our God is a God of physical order), but we usually don't have the resources to predict all of their interactions. I am called upon to be excellent in all I do, and so my limited human mind often necessitates that I fool myself into attacking each problem as though it can be solved, and yet I must take care to continuously call for help from God, Who is the only one who can really solve every problem.

Once again, reality points me to the One True God, for in a world of infinite complexity why would I want to worship a god who is small and definable enough for such a limited creature as me to understand?!?

Body.. Complete with instructions

The One True God is far above any one analogy or role, or even entire sets of comparisons, and yet as I've grown as His child I find that my faith has grown as a result of my growth as an engineer. God is far more than the greatest of engineers, but in engineering we follow rules and guidelines which I see reflected in His creation.

The first of these rules is that things NEVER get better on their own, and in fact the most reliable mechanisms and electronics have "Mean Times Between Failures" and "Uptimes" which are counted in minutes or hours, but seldom in days or weeks. Even the simplest, best-designed processes require maintenance every few days, and none of them are self-sustaining. A few are starting to be called "learning" because they can amass enough data to begin to make better and better "decisions" or even to go faster and faster, but in reality they cannot begin to "learn" until they are set in motion by their human builders, and they cannot sustain themselves without human intervention, including cooling, lubrication, replacement of worn parts, electrical power, and a host of other critical resources.

When God created us (originally perfectly), he too built in certain needs -- food, companionship, emotional fulfillment, warmth, air, sunlight, etc. The fact that we are not self-sustaining points to God, while the fact that we are fragile, limited, immoral, and self-destructive reminds us of our downfall -- sometimes called "original sin". These limits, none of which are outside of God's control, in the light of His Word show us our sin, His Goodness, and our dependence on Him.

One of the other "rules" in engineering is that a process is only as good as those who use it, and maintain it. I would be a pitiful engineer if I set up the most brilliant process in the world and then handed it over without further explanation to people totally unfamiliar with its workings or its maintenance needs, setting them "free" to do whatever they wanted with it. A good manual, and/or set of drawings and instructions, is critical for the process to do what it was designed to do.

God is not limited by engineering rules, but I believe that He too has provided a manual for proper operation and maintenance, in the form of His Word. Countless lives have borne out the impact of His Word upon spirit, emotions, and even mental health, but I believe that His Word also contains the best instructions for healthy physical living. After all, why would the designer's instructions not be the best?

This is a "Body" post, and I realize that I've already gotten way too spiritual for some, so I'll limit my remarks here to God's instructions for our bodies. I recognize God's hierarchy, that our spiritual well-being is far more important than that of our physical bodies, but in calling us to be excellent in all things I am assured that God does not intend for us to neglect our physical bodies at all. On the contrary, His "Old Testament laws" as found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as well as throughout the rest of His Word, are not to be ignored (except those which Jesus specifically replaced, that is the priesthood and the sacrifices) and in many cases deal with physical well-being.

"Modern research" has borne out what God told His people thousands of years ago; in fact, I would hazard to guess that few of us would live up to "newly" recognized standards for diet, exercise, and rest (often called "recovery" today) as well as an Israelite in 500 BC would have done. Don't eat shellfish, hogs, bottom-feeders, and other toxin-collectors (God designed them for the specific purpose of cleaning up stuff that would be deadly to much of the rest of His creation); work hard for 6 days; rest completely on the seventh day -- God's instructions to His people were specific, intentional, detailed, and good. Dr. Don Colbert does a terrific job of expounding on many of God's dietary and physical laws and instructions, and how to apply them, but really we can get a pretty good understanding of how God's "Levitical laws" aid in our physical welfare by just taking the time to literally read them.

I realize that many, if not most, Christians today, even those who are disposed to careful reading and understanding of the Old Testament, dismiss many of the Levitical laws as not being relevant to us, in the light of Christ for our salvation, and cite the example of Peter's vision of "unclean" foods in Acts 10 as evidence that we don't have to follow the Old Testament dietary guidelines. But Peter's vision led him to take the Gospel to non-Jews -- those he had formerly considered "unclean", and so it was intended (and he understood it) as spiritual teaching, not dismissal of good physical instructions. Jesus Himself said that He came to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it, and Paul pointed out that the Law, given by God, was as such good, even though it was never intended to bring the righteousness of salvation (but instead was intended to show that we could never achieve righteousness apart from God).

There are plenty of Christian cliches I dispute as misleading (or outright lies), but here's one I like: "Read the manual."

(Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Acts 10 and 11, Matthew 5, Romans 7)

Soul... It's Easy (and other lies)

One of the most common inaccuracies I hear in marriage seminars is "men, it's easy for your wives to submit to you if you're doing a good job of loving her and leading your household". I want to jump up and yell, "No it's not! It's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to fully submit constantly, just like it's impossible for anyone to selflessly love constantly!"

This inaccuracy is often presented to us as "encouragement" for men to love selflessly, as Christ loves the Church, usually within the context of improving "sexual intimacy" within marriage (giving us men the idea that our sweet and somehow-less-sinful wives just need to be nurtured into giving us all we desire when it comes to sex). (Don't get me wrong, we men are commanded to love selflessly, just as our wives are commanded to submit completely, and this includes the arena of sex within marriage -- huge blessings follow obedience to God's commands, but they often don't include the results we want.) Why the people who put on and write material for Christian marriage seminars want to promote this lie baffles me, just as it baffles me that we want to make excuses for God rather than admitting that He's in control of everything, including those destined for salvation.

In fact, we who are saved by His grace are the ONLY ones who have even a chance of submitting, or of loving selflessly sometimes, for just as Augustine wrote, we are the only ones who can choose that which is not sin. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit, living within us, that we can do that which is otherwise impossible.

Don't believe me? Check out Genesis 3:16, where God pronounces His judgment upon women for Eve's sin. I'm incredulous (and cynically amused) that some Bible scholars actually interpret this verse to mean that woman's sexual desire will be for the man (though many women would no doubt think that to be a curse!). No! Women (and therefore men, whom they were designed to help) are cursed with women's desire to take the role of leadership AWAY from men, and our society (and churches) are loaded with examples of women "stepping up" because men "won't" (or won't quickly enough to suit the women watching and waiting).

The Christian life is not easy, or "simple" (though it is for those who are simple, as a word-study within God's Word shows), any more than human life on Earth is. Even becoming a child of God is impossible... except with God! (Matthew 19:26)

(Genesis 3, Matthew 19:16-26)

Soul... Bible Study update

We'll be starting Psalm 119 at 8 pm at Java Jive this Thursday night!

If you're not already in a weekly Bible study group, please consider joining one. If you've studied enough to be Biblically accurate, please consider forming one!

Body... Velocomp iSport

My favorite new "tool" is my iSport from Velocomp (http://www.ibikesports.com/ ). Yes, $210 or so is a lot of money to spend on something that essentially sits on your bicycle handlebars and provides feedback about what your body is doing with said bicycle, but when you consider that a device to get the same feedback costs $1,000 more from any other manufacturer it suddenly becomes a relative "bargain"!

I realize that there are a lot of people out there who just ride their bicycle for fun or to save on gas, and even more people who don't ride a bicycle at all, so I'll keep this fairly short. If you're interested you can find out more about the iSport (and all its big brothers, the iBike Pro and iBike Aero) at Velocomp's website -- just don't pay too much attention to most of what you read about it on the rest of the internet, because most of it is out-dated. Oh, and don't bother trying to pick up a used one "cheap" on eBay, because the current models (Generation III) are a huge step above the Generation I and II units you'll find eBay littered with.

The guys at Velocomp are unusually responsive and customer-oriented, and their product shows a level of thoughtfulness that I usually don't see in electronic devices (and I see a lot of electronic devices). Check their forums on their web-site (http://www.ibikeforums.com/) and you'll see that they answer most questions within a day or two.

One of the best things about the iSport, besides the fact that it displays calculated real-time power in Watts (which is HUGE to a cyclist), is that once you set it up for your bike and do a 20-minute "fitness test" then there are three different workout-types you can choose from, each with at least two "levels" you can select. This means you can work on strength-training one day and cardio the next, and the displays will guide you by telling you what your target wattage should be, along with your actual wattage at that time.

If you ride your bicycle for fitness of any type, whether your goal is losing weight, gaining strength, or punishing your fellow competitors at your next triathlon, this is a product worthy of consideration. Forgive me for sounding like a marketing slogan, but it's true (and no, I've not received anything from Velocomp other than good advice and the iSport, which I paid full price for).