Why Isn't it Working?

Just in time for my New Year's resolution of continuing to drop the baby weight (especially since my "baby" is about to turn 2), I got Jillian Michaels' workout DVD "30 Day Shred." I brought it home and put it with my other DVDs and waited for the pounds to melt away and for my rock-hard abs and my buns of steel to emerge.

And yet nothing changed. "I spent eight bucks on that workout DVD. Why isn't it working?" I wondered.

Turns out you have to pull it off the shelf and USE IT in order to see results.

Sounds like a no-brainer, but there's something else that we tend to think will bring about a transformation just by having it in the house. We feel good having a Bible on the bookshelf for some reason, as though its truth will be able to penetrate our hearts as it collects dust.

So anyway, I finally took the DVD off the shelf and began my journey to having the perfect body (Okay, I'm laughing out loud right here). And the first time I did that video I gasped for breath and cried out to Justin, "Tell the children I love them!!!" Okay, I'm being dramatic. But it was a stretch for me, I will say. But it's becoming less of a stretch, more normal. And I'm seeing a transformation.

The same thing happened when I started to drag myself out of bed to get into the Word in the mornings. It was unpleasant at first to get up earlier and sacrifice that "warm under my covers" time in the morning that I so cherish. But in time it became normal. And then normal turned to NECESSARY. I can't NOT be in the Word now--I am too hungry for the collision between my heart and His truth.

And I'm seeing a transformation.