My Incredible Arnold Weekend! (Part 1)

I am sitting here in my 3rd floor room in the incredible Bed & Breakfast in Columbus, Ohio, attempting to make an accounting of God's grace to me this weekend, and failing miserably to be able to keep up with tallying the sum of God's incredible kindnesses to me!

I arrived around 9 pm on Thursday evening. Unlike in previous years, I had done no planning this year about what or who I would see. I was on a tight budget, and so did not buy any tickets to the high-priced evening events. I just planned to roam around the Arnold Expo and see what and whom I could see. And, it turned out spectacularly!

I met so many cool people (even just on Friday!) that I had waited years to meet, it just blew my mind! Here are a few:

The lady in the 4th photo is Kris Murrell, an IFBB Pro bodybuilder.  She has downsized a lot since turning Pro, but still makes me look weak and small.  She talked to me and another fan for about 20 minutes, and we learned that she will soon be appearing in a major motion picture.  She plays the part of "Kitty", David Spade's girlfriend.  I can't wait to see it!

Before Danica Patrick, there was ...

Paula Murphy!

Broken Down Cars & Unconditional Love

So, the reason I posted all the sins of my Mercury LN7 was because of what I think it has taught me about Unconditional Love.

This car has betrayed me over and over again, on a nearly daily basis.  It has tried in several ways to kill me.  It devises new and bizarre ways to fail me.  And yet, I love the car.  It seems crazy, I know, but I have chosen this car to be my own and will not go back on that choice.

And that is just the way God has been with me.  I am even worse to God than my LN7 is to me.  And yet He continues to love me and work on fixing me up.  I sometimes doubt that God can really love someone as unfaithful and guilty of betrayal as I am.  But I am forced to either one of two conclusions.  Either, (1) I think that my capacity for loving the unlovely exceeds God's; or (2) God really is able to love me in spite of my failings.

I think I'll go with the latter.

Trials and Tribulations of My 30-Year-Old "New" Car!

In reading the following list, you have to understand that I am not complaining about the "new" car I bought.  I still love it!  But I wanted to catalog what has gone wrong with this car to date, because it has given me an unprecedented level of trouble.  And I say that as someone who has excelled at buying problematic cars!

Also, I have a method to my madness.  After making this blog entry, I intend to do a follow-up posting about what I have learned from this trying experience!  Okay, here goes:

I bought the car on November 10, 2012.  It had a bit over 74,000 miles showing on the odometer (most likely 174,000 miles!).


Stuff I found inside the car after I bought it ... hmmmm.

My LN7 ... posing next to the place it is trying to send me!

* Just driving it back home, I noticed that I was breathing in a LOT of exhaust fumes, and getting light-headed.  I subsequently bought a carbon-monoxide (CO) detector and found that I was breathing in rather alarming amounts of this toxic gas.  More on that later.

*  I got home and looked at the tires ... there were three different sizes of them (all 13" diameter), and at least one of them was almost bald.  I later replaced these with new 14" Firestone Winterforce tires.

* The passenger's side door lock quit working almost immediately, so I ordered 2 new lock cylinders from ebay.

* The accessory drive belt was squealing, so I replaced it.  Within about 10 days, it started squealing again.  In the process, I found that the alternator bracket was missing a bolt.  I found one to put in.

*  I noticed that the passenger's side door has a huge gap between it and the body along the rear surface behind the window.  Unresolved as of yet, but I did glue some foam in there to help keep the exhaust gas out.

*  Parking brake didn't work.  The 3rd time I attempted to fix it, it finally stayed fixed.

*  The hatchback would not stay open.  Ordered new struts from AutoZone.  That is still working.

*  Car was running rough, stalling and missing.  I replaced the spark plugs, spark plug wires, coil, and eventually the carburetor.  Problem was not fixed.

*  Blew out the lower radiator hose.  Replaced it.

* As soon as I put in the new radiator hose, it became apparent that I had a blown head gasket. I took it to a shop where they replaced the head gasket, made the warped head flat again, did a valve job, installed a new camshaft, a new water pump, and a new timing belt.

*  Car seemed to run better, but the carburetor now stuck coming off idle, so that it wouldn't go until you pressed quite hard, and then all of a sudden, it would cut loose, and you'd have too much acceleration.  Still having that problem, but at a less severe level.

*  BEFORE all the engine repairs and carb change, I averaged 29 mpg.  AFTER all the repairs and installing the rebuilt car, I'm averaging about 25 mpg.  Wait, WHAT!

*  To help with the CO problem, I sprayed foam into all the crevasses around the hatchback.  I also put an extended tailpipe on the car.  Those things helped a little, but the engine rebuild is what really made the carbon-monoxide problem go away.

*  Driver's side door stuck shut.  Ordered a new latch, which took 20 days to arrive.  In the mean time I had to climb in and out of the passenger's door.  But when the car was in the shop for engine repair, he used the driver's door.  After that, it wouldn't shut at all, so I had to duct tape it shut and enter/exit through the passenger's door.

*  Water temp gauge stopped working.  New sender was installed along with the head gasket job.

*  Replaced the driver's side latch.  Other than some funkiness with the lock cylinder orientation, it basically works.

*  New winter tires (on 14" Escort rims from ebay) required 1" thick adapters, which pushed the wheels out farther than they should be.  Right rear wheel hits the fender when carrying a passenger.

*   Yesterday morning, my seat broke.  The seat came unattached from where it had been welded to the seat track.  I took it out at put the passenger's seat over on the driver's side.

*  This morning, the car would not start.  Roll-started it and drove to the gym.  After my cardio session, the LN7 would not start again.  Diagnosis:  Broken "yoke" on the negative terminal.

I'm sure I've left out quite a few items, but that's most of what I've dealt with since buying this car.

Dating Challenges of the Shy Anglican Parish

This morning, I was thinking about all the struggling little Anglican parishes I have known in my 22 years in Anglicanism.  Some have gone under due to losing "critical mass".  One of those was among the most beloved parishes my wife and I have attended.  And yet, somehow, it couldn't attract enough parishioners to itself to survive.

I got to thinking how unfair this is, that so many beautiful, small Anglican parishes are struggling.  As I thought about this, I thought about the metaphor of a shy, introverted girl who is longing to go out on dates with a gentleman, but against whom the entire deck seems stacked when it comes to the dating scene.

I think many folks get attracted to a loud, boisterous, in-your-face church, perhaps with a worship band loud enough to hear when you drive by the church building in a car.  Churches with big youth groups, singles ministries, and a host of other programs.  Churches that promise a lot.  Churches that "put out" on the first date.

I think it is very easy for a nice, shy parish to get lost in the noise.  I mean, one cannot just put a marquee sign out front that says:  "Come, experience our AWESOME humility!!!"  Or, "Hey, come behold our EARTH-SHATTERING quiet reverence!!"

I don't have an answer to this problem.  I'm just blogging about it to share my sadness that so many nice, shy Anglican "girls" get overlooked.

Gym Bans Skinny People!

This is just a logical extension of the Planet Fitness anti-bodybuilder, anti-fitness mindset:

Sorry, skinny people -- you can’t work out here.

One gym in Canada is taking the growing “plus-size friendly” gym trend to the extreme and banning too-trim gym rats from exercising at its facility.

Body Exchange in Vancouver has a strict policy that only allows plus-size women to join their fitness center.

Founder and CEO Louise Green told TheProvince.com last week that the gym is a “safe haven” for overweight people.

Read the rest here.
 
The obvious question is:  What if (horror of horrors!) one of the members actually succeeds at weight loss?  Does she get kicked out of the gym?  After all, her newly slim body is a non-welcoming threat to new members!  It is more likely, however, that the gym owners know that none of their clients will succeed.

Bodybuilding Contest Prep in Lent

I've read this passage many times, and heard it read in church service yearly, but yesterday it jolted me awake.

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 

And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

What got my attention about the passage was the word "bread." This was because I am on an extended bodybuilding contest prep diet, which doesn't allow me to eat any bread.

During the prep periods for two of my past bodybuilding contests, I had to drive by a bakery every morning on my way to work. This became a certain special kind of torture. And, on those rare occasions on which I was allowed a "cheat meal" and ate bread, I found that its taste had become to me as sweet as cake.

So when the passage about Jesus' fasting and temptation (from St. Luke's Gospel) was read yesterday morning, it hit me in a powerful way. More than usual, I identified with Jesus in his temptations.

I think it almost goes without saying that American Christians today are better at feasting than at fasting. One look at the extended guts on the faithful, and perhaps even particularly on clergymen, should be enough to convince anyone that living a "fasted life" is not high on the list of concerns of today's average Christian.

I am thankful to the bodybuilding lifestyle for many reasons. One of them I thank God for today is that it has taught me self-denial. It has taught me to fast.