My love-hate relationship with excercise

Over the last couple of years as my job has gotten less physical thanks to new equipment, my waistline has increased. This is not good. I am now the heaviest I have ever been, not to mention several other problems that are not evident but are probably in the danger zone right now (i.e blood pressure, heart health)

I used to exercise quite frequently. During summers I used to bike quite often, almost once a day, I was pretty thin then for me and I felt good about the exercise. I enjoyed biking so much.

After that there was a period of about six months where I was a runner. That was OK but it was hard. Since then I have really done nothing but say I need to exercise.

I had all kinds of excuses, but when your excuse is that you don't feel like putting running shoes on then you know you are in a bad way.

So, yesterday I pulled out my bike after a couple of years and tuned it all up and took it for a spin. I discovered that I have really missed cycling. The freedom of it. The ability to go places you couldn't in a car. The honest sweat that you work up (mind you I don't remember it ever being this difficult when I was a kid, oh well).

Anyway long story short, I am trying to get back into the exercise thing. I am currently not at a place where I enjoy it, as many of you can empathize I am sure, but I am making the effort. I may never love it, but I hope I will continue to do it. I also hope my continuing struggle in this area will encourage others to at least try to get out. In the end I think it will be worth it, even if I hate every minute of it. See ya'.

Lessons from "The Punisher"

The other day I was watching the newest "Punisher" movie and while it is filled with a lot of violence and gore it did have a message there. You just have to look for it.

For those who don't know "The Punisher" is a Marvel Comics anti-hero. Frank Castle witnessed his family gunned down by the mob and after this event he took on the mantle of "The Punisher" to exact revenge against all those who break the law, only his brand of justice is usually in the form of death to the bad guys.

Anyway there is a scene in the movie before the climactic final battle where Punisher is in a church talking to his priest friend. His friend quotes Matthew 7:2 "The standard you use for judging is the standard by which you will be judged" (NLT) and the Punisher simply says "I can live with that."

Now I have been thinking about this a lot since then because so many times I am quick to judge others for various reasons. Also, I see it all to often where we as the human race are quick with our judgments without knowing the whole story or we judge based on our prejudices.

Knowing that God will judge me in the same way I judge others can I say with the Punisher "I can live with that?" Unfortunately I cannot. I do not want God to judge me based on the things I have done or the things I have said. I don't want God to judge on the basis of my skin color or how well I speak English. I don't want to be judged by God on my appearance or how wealthy or poor I am. I cannot live with being judged in that manner, especially by God.

Sometimes we are so quick to judge others based on so many things, I think we would be wise to remember that we will be judged in the same way we judge others.

Of course this leads into whole other topics of discussion like loving one another and being good Samaritans and such but I will leave those for another day. So, in the meantime, for those that didn't think comics had anything to teach us, think again.

First blog post ever.

Well, here it is. I have decided to start a blog. The biggest reason for this is that I have a lot of stuff go through my head and I decided I needed to start putting it down somewhere. I have opinions, thoughts, ideas and for my own sanity I thought writing some of them out would help me, and if they are helpful to any readers out there, then all the better.

I hesitated to start this blog because once I start I am committed to it. Committed to writing it, committed to putting my thoughts out there in cyberspace for all to see. In the end though I have decided to go through with it because I think the benefits far outweigh the negatives. I also have been looking for motivation to write for years and I thought this would be a good start.

So, what can you expect from a blog entitled 'Jeremy's Ramblings'? Well, those in the know say your blog should be about that which you are passionate about. So with that in mind (and trust me I have thought long and hard about this) I have decided to have a blog about no one specific thing. My passions are many and how can I write only about comic books, or movies, or God. No, I must write whatever happens to be on my mind at the time, sometimes it will be serious, sometimes humouress ( I hope), but in the end it will be about the things that I am about. Also, do not expect daily blog posts from me. Right now I am challenging myself to write at least once per week. I also plan to keep thing fairly short, no one wants to read me ranting for 20 pages.

So, I hope, dear reader, that you will take time every week (and possibly more) to come and see what is on my mind. I look forward to hearing from those who read this blog (if anyone) and hope that some of the things that I write will challenge and encourage.