In my last post I wrote that I was awaiting the date of my Lap Band weight loss procedure. Not an hour after I wrote that, Hurley Bariatric Center called with the dates of my surgery as well as the other stuff that goes along with it. My surgery will be on May 29th at 9:30am. I am amazed at how God worked this all out. The last two months have been crazy in life and church with Easter and meetings concerning our church’s building impending building program. Also as soon as summer gets going I will have other things happening like taking my favorite wife to Chicago for her birthday at the end of June as well as riding my motorcycle.
It seems that in a span of several months God chose the best time to arrange this. What does Psalm 31:14&15 say: “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hands . . .” How true this is. Another life Scripture that I love is Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
I want to be a person who is happy, contented and feels good. Who is confident. Whose clothes fit and doesn’t have to worry about small booths. I have determined that when I have lost a considerable amount of weight one of the first places I’m going to go is McDonald’s. “Right into the dragon’s lair?!?” you say. I’m not going to go there to eat. I’m going to go there to sit in their booths and at their tables with the fixed chairs. They are the smallest seats in the world–which really doesn’t make sense. Anyway, I don’t want to be so consumed by food. I want to be a man who isn’t referenced by others as “Big Guy.” I want to stop shopping at stores with inferior overpriced clothes with labels like Big Dog, King Size, Big Daddy, or any other offensive names. I don’t know of any “Big and Tall” person to whom those brand names would appeal.
This is not who I want to be. But it is more than all these things. Moreso, it’s just a realization and conviction that I am not living to the potential for which God created me. I want to be the best instrument He can use. I want to be the best dad I can be. I want to be more like the man my wife married twenty years ago. As another favorite Switchfoot song declares: “There’s more to life than just getting by.”
Next week I will be starting a two week liquid diet to get ready for my surgery. I am so glad that the Bible is true and that “man does not live on bread alone.”
Chris Higgins 