{"id":349,"date":"2011-01-07T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.195.124.95\/~redletu4\/blood-sweat-tears-isnt-there-an-easier-way-to-do-this\/"},"modified":"2011-01-07T07:02:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T14:02:00","slug":"blood-sweat-tears-isnt-there-an-easier-way-to-do-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/blood-sweat-tears-isnt-there-an-easier-way-to-do-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood.Sweat.Tears. Isn&#8217;t there an easier way to do this?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><span><i><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/25389429@N05\/3308546704\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Health officials explain substance abuse dangers\" height=\"161\" src=\"https:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3472\/3308546704_33b703f98a_m.jpg\" width=\"240\"><\/a><span><span><span>I<\/span><span>mage by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/25389429@N05\/3308546704\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">usag.yongsan<\/a> via Flickr<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/i><\/span><br><span><\/span><\/p>\n<div><span><i><b>Blood.\u00a0<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span><i><b>Sweat.\u00a0<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span><i><b>Tears.\u00a0<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>I really wish I could say it would be easier,\u00a0but losing weight, deepening my spiritual walk and improving my relationships are all\u00a0going to require some sacrifice.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>And as my doctor said during my \u201cprocedure,\u201d \u2014 <b><i>\u201cYou might feel a little pressure.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>That\u2019s the nature of discipline. It hurts for a while, but the long-term benefits outweigh the temporal discomfort. (Still I ask, \u201c<i>Can\u2019t I just buy an app for this stuff?\u201d)<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span><strong>Larry\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Hehn\u2019<\/strong>s delightful blog,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/larryhehn.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Christians in the Rough<\/a>, is a continuous dose of good medicine, but it doesn\u2019t always go down easily. In a recent post, Larry acknowledges the struggle to live a better, more disciplined life by comparing it to a certain brand of effective, but wretched-tasting brand of cough medicine,\u00a0<span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.buckleys.com\/about\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Buckley's Mixture\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Buckley\u2019s Mixture<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span><span>The company was honest in the advertising. <i>\u201cIt tastes awful. And it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span><i>\u201cWe\u2019ve all made some worthy resolutions over the years,\u201d<\/i> Hehn said in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/larryhehn.com\/2010\/it-tastes-awful-and-it-works\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">his post.\u00a0<\/a>\u201c<i>But how often have we backed away from reaching them once we get a\u00a0taste of the discipline it takes to get there?\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span>Three years ago I worked hard to turn my life around physically, spiritually and in my relationships. I lost 30 pounds of fat and gained 20 pounds of muscle. But over the last few months that physique has \u2026 slipped.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t long ago that I studied and taught with fiery passion. Today, I just barely limp by in my faith.\u00a0<\/span><span>I used to be surrounded by friends who would encourage me and I could learn from. But by my brokenness, I lost my way.<\/span><br><span><br><\/span><br><span><i>Do I want change?<\/i> You bet.\u00a0<\/span><span>But the reality is that none of this is going to be easy.<\/span><br><span><br><\/span><br><span><i>How about you? What\u2019s the toughest thing you are planning on doing this year? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=956512876042479602&amp;postID=3229634449561951585&amp;isPopup=true\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Comment here.<\/a><\/i><\/span><br><span><br><\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" src=\"https:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=6770a5ed-e359-405a-8333-3515a845124f\"><\/a><span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<div>Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.<br>\nRead all past issues at http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image by usag.yongsan via Flickr Blood.\u00a0 Sweat.\u00a0 Tears.\u00a0 I really wish I could say it would be easier,\u00a0but losing weight, deepening my spiritual walk and improving my relationships are all\u00a0going to require some sacrifice.\u00a0 And as my doctor said during my \u201cprocedure,\u201d \u2014 \u201cYou might feel a little pressure.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the nature of discipline. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,217,954],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-long-obedience-in-the-same-direction-discipleship-in-an-instant-society","category-discipline","category-weight-loss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blood.Sweat.Tears. 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