I love the movie franchise “Final Destination”. It came up on my Max channel as a movie to watch before it disappears, so I watched it. I love how the writers of this movie came up with all the little ways that death eventually found the kids who cheated death, and the theory from the undertaker that death has a design.

It made me wonder if everything in life has a design, and we can either cheat the design or just go along with it. For example, I’m not feeling very well today. I’ve been on an eating junk food binge since Thanksgiving. I let myself eat whatever I wanted on Turkey day, and it’s been hard to get back on track with my very healthy way of eating.

So if I look at everything that led me to not feeling good today, the design of it all, it all started on Thanksgiving. Well, if I’m honest, t started with my September vacation. I went on vacation after Labor Day, and it was hard to keep to my normally healthy way of eating. I wasn’t at home, and I was at a conference. And when I’m on vacation, I like to indulge and take a break from my normal way of life.

So I gained 5 pounds that week. I was just beginning to lose it, when I went on my yearly camping trip in October. Camping for me is the worst place to stick to my healthy eating habits. I go camping with a group of friends, and two of our camping meals are potluck meals. And I have this thing with potlucks that I let myself eat whatever I want because it’s fun to taste the food that people cook and bring to that event. Plus, it’s a social occasion and it’s fun to eat all the food and then talk to people about all the dishes that were good to eat.

So that became another 5 pounds that I gained. Surprisingly, I managed to lose the camping weight gain very easily, but not the original 5 pounds from my September vacation. And then Thanksgiving rolled around. And then I’m like, okay, Christmas is coming up, and I’m not going to watch what I eat at all. I’ll deal with it in the new year because there are parties to go to from now until the end of the year.

Today was a party day. Went out with friends to eat and we did a cookie potluck, where everyone brings cookies to share. And I let myself taste all the cookies. BIG MISTAKE! And I’m paying for it now because I so do not feel good. Too much sugar at one time and a tasty but carbo-loaded meal.

I’m thinking about the design of it all, and a video pops up in my Youtube feed about an astronaut talking about his nutrition. It was like a sign. d a sign this morning, so I watched it. The astronaut said his nutritionist told him that the difference between two football teams who are tied at the end of the game, comes down to nutrition. Because when you’ve pushed yourself that hard for the whole game, and you now need a little more just to win the game, it’s your nutrition that is going to determine how well you play during those extra minutes.

So the design of my day, the design of my life since September has not been that great and now I feel horrible. If I had kept my good nutrition in place since September, I know I would be feeling very good right now. Instead, I feel like crap and semi-nauseous.

If there is a design to my life, the lesson is I have to design it better if I want to feel good and accomplish the things I want to do.

 Day 340 Bible Reading

Proverbs 29: 25

“The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”

This line from Proverbs 29 struck me as very profound. Is fear a snare? Sometimes it appears to be. Fear of whatever can you lead some very interesting and sometimes dark paths. One begins to imagine one scenario and then another until it becomes a continuous fear loop. Perhaps some of the scenarios to be fearful of are justified, but other scenarios seem to stem from one’s imagination or often borrowed from other past traumas that have nothing to do with the present fear. Fear truly sems like a snare swing you from fear to fear without rhyme or reason.

But if you trust God, then he’s like that brilliant award winning movie/theater director on the live stage that is your life who yells “CUT”. God then comes over to talks to you and says “What was that about? What made you go there? Does that action have anything to do with the person you are now?” So instead of swinging dangerously from fear scenario to fear scenario, where you could fall into depression, anxiety, addictive impulses, etc; you stop and think “God is right. Let me rethink my fear scenario exploration.” And you remember that God loves you because you are amazing person, you are a child of God, and with him, you can conquer your fear and the world.

Day 339 Bible Reading

1 John 5: 4

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

I love this line from 1 John 5. We are all born of God, but it is faith that helps up to overcome the world. When I look at how I have overcome any challenge in my life, I always needed faith to do it. Sometimes it was a little faith, but other times I needed as much faith as I could muster to overcome the difficult challenges in my life. And Jesus was my role model for faith. Jesus had so much faith in himself and his disciples. He never gave up. He kept on going even though there wasn’t any physical evidence to back him up. His faith never wavered.

 Day 338 Bible Reading

I John 4: 7

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

I have heard this line from 1 John 4 many times, but today it struck me because as a believer in Christ God is our role model for how to love. We read of many examples in the Bible of how God loves his people, even though they often disobeyed him and did not follow his laws. God’s nature in the Bible is shown to be forgiving and generous. He sees our faults, but in the end he still loves us anyway. God seems to let his people do what they want, so they have free will to follow their desires. He then watches his people to see what we will do with our free will and free choices. Like a good parent or a good marriage partner, God’s love never wavers even when we make mistakes and make bad choices.

 Day 337 Bible Reading

1 John 4: 2-3

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

I like this passage from 1 John 4 because I am sometimes reminded that the friends whom I can rely on the most have the same love of Christ that I have. There always seems to be a sympatico between myself and another person who believes in Christ. We speak the same the same language, have the same values, and look at life in similar ways. I do have friends who do not follow Christ, but our friendship does not seem to go as deep as with my friends who do believe in Jesus Christ. Belief in Jesus Christ adds a very deep and profound layer to any friendship and maybe it has something to do with the Bible passage from Matthew 18:20; “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” When there is a friendship between two believers of Christ, he is always there between them.