Another question about God

Growing up with church, I learned a lot of "Christian-ese" that as an adult, I've begun to question. I'd like some feedback on this one.

Christians often talk about their sins and struggles as "hurting their relationship with the Lord." For example, someone might say "I believe my tendency to (enter vice here) is hurting my relationship with God."

I don't quite understand that expression anymore.

While I agree that our sinfulness seperated us from God BEFORE we became a Christian, it was the cross that restored us to Him...NOT our change in morality.

So if our relationship with God was never based on our behavior, how can it be weakened or "damaged" by our behavior?

I think that the words we use betray the pride in our hearts. Deep down, I want to believe that my relationship with God is based on my goodness, abilitity, or effort. I want to control it. Even if I can intellectually acknowledge my inability to earn it, I'm not about to give up my ability to lose it.

But aren't those pretty much different sides of the same coin? ...and doesn't it make the cross pointless (Gal 2:21) ?

Hidden gems at Sam's club

I stick to a low carb diet most of the time, but I do have some high carb foods every now and then. My favorite food by far is pizza. Before I started my low carb diet, I could eat it every meal and never get tired of it.

A second food I get a hankering for from time to time is sushi roles. This can ONLY be explained by the fact that I married into an Asian family. Like most white boys from Arkansas, I grew up thinking sushi was something you would use to fish for food rather than something you would actually eat.

It just so happens that (of all places) Sam’s Club is a GREAT place to get both ready-to-eat pizza and sushi roles.

I’ll start with the sushi. In my opinion, the biggest thing that ruins a basic sushi roll is when it isn’t fresh and starts to taste fishy. If you can avoid that, then you’re well on your way to having a decent sushi roll. Sam’s sells a pack of 14 pieces of sushi for less than 7 dollars that is as good or better than any “grocery store sushi” I’ve ever had…and considerably less expensive. To put some perspective on that price, even an inexpensive sushi restaurant will charge about 8 dollars of a simple roll of around 6-8 pieces. (If you get something fancier at a sushi restaurant, the price goes up exponentially.)

Now, the pizza is an even better deal. The snack bar at Sam’s makes INCREDIBLY good pizza. In fact, except for a little mom and pop joint near our house, it might be my favorite pizza ever. If you like Papa Johns, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The best part is the price. They give you 2 slices and a 32 ounce fountain drink for $2.48. (These days you could easily pay that much JUST for the fountain drink.)

Since pizza is like crack cocaine to me (that’s right, 2 crack references in a row for those of you who read the last post. ;) ), pizza buffets are a really bad idea for me. It’s just too tempting. So typically if I’m in the mood for pizza, I’ll order their 2.48 deal and split it with our baby. (Yes, amazingly our 16 month old can eat an entire slice of pizza on his own.)

That way, I’ve fed the baby (go ahead and judge me for feeding a baby pizza…I can take it ;) ), satisfied my pizza cravings, and have 32 ounces of Coke Zero I can drink for the rest of the day and it only cost me 2.48 and about 350 calories.

So if you like pizza or sushi—and you have a Sam’s membership—you might want to check these deals out. Not only are they really cheap, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the quality.

P.S. The only reason I’m telling you this is that I’m surprised how few people know about these deals. I’m in no way compensated by Sam’s Club for posting this.

P.S.S. If you happen to know how I could get compensated by Sam’s Club for posting this, could you let me know?!? ;)

Confession time.

Last night a friend who I haven’t seen in a while (who still keeps up with us via our blogs) asked me about giving up coffee. I realized I needed to give an update to some of my previous sanctimonious-ness.

I gave up artificial sweeteners and coffee during the month of December. I found that giving up artificial sweeteners resulted in an immediate weight loss of almost 6 pounds (but that was it). Giving up caffeine didn’t really affect my weight, but it did help me sleep a lot better.

I’ve since gone back to using both in moderation.

I usually have a very small cup of half-caff coffee (no sweetener) in the morning and the occasional diet beverage in the afternoon.

Someday I will give up aspartame completely and limit Splenda to special occasions, but (unless it begins to take over my life and interfere with my sleep again), coffee is probably here to stay.

What can I say, I’m addicted. ;) But I figure a little coffee is better than a lot, AND I’m afraid if I give it up I will end up seeking out other addictions. Like crack cocaine.

So don’t judge me for drinking coffee…I’m just trying to stay off cocaine. ;)

Life update...I'm still here

Sorry to disappear for a while. School has been kicking my butt lately.

Blogging is fun for me because it allows me to write about things I think about in every day life. This is the real me. My friends can testify to the fact that the way I write on this blog is pretty much like conversations I would have in real life…except with more spelling errors.

School writing is a different beast entirely. Writing my dissertation requires me to access an intellectual side of my brain that quite frankly doesn’t get used much. I can get there, but I definitely prefer not to without a dang good reason. (It’s pretty much the “thinking equivalent” of going to the dentist.)

People who happen to call me when I’m working on school are often surprised that I sound so serious. Quite frankly, I am too, but it’s hard to switch gears. I just can’t quickly jump from interpreting a least squares regression analysis to telling fart jokes. (In fact, I bet most people who are any good at analyzing regression analyses don’t even KNOW any good fart jokes.)

The good new is that I’ve finally completed the first draft of my full dissertation. For those of you who are wondering, so far I’ve written just over 130 pages. While that might sound like a lot, it is actually pretty efficient for a dissertation. I’ve seen some as large as 400 pages and some as small as 99. Most of the ones I’ve read have been around 150-200, but I was able to answer my research questions sufficiently in 130 pages so I stopped there in order to be finished with this friggin thing finally! save some trees.

I’ve also been hitting the diet and treadmill pretty hard over the last 6 weeks and managed to shed almost 22 pounds. I’m really excited about that too because I’m less than 4 pounds away from a total weight loss of 50 pounds…again. ;)

Weight loss update and caffeine free update

I’m up .8 pound this week, but on average my weight has been slightly lower this week that last week. I think it’s safe to say that giving up artificial sweeteners has caused me to lose right at 6 pounds. I hope that giving them up will result in continual weight loss, but even if it doesn’t I’m more than willing to trade off my Diet Coke for 6 pounds.

This was a 4 week experiment, and I still have a week to go so I look forward to seeing what happens in this coming week.

As far as caffeine is concerned, last night I slept better than I have in a really long time and I woke up feeling rested instead of groggy. So far today, I feel pretty good. Not quite as good as I used to feel right after a big cup of coffee, but (if I’m honest) I feel better than I felt most of the rest of the day as the coffee began to wear off.

Caffeine Free update: Day 2

Today is the second day I've gone with out caffeine. Please forgive any spelling errors. ;)

Yes, I'm still a little tired, but so far this hasn't been THAT bad.

I'm very grateful that I haven't had any withdrawal headaches. Last night I slept better than I have in a really long time.

Besides feeling tired, the only thing I really miss is having a warm cup (of anything) on a cold morning. I thought about decaf, but decided that I'd be better off braking the habit entirely first. I can always come back to that later if I want.

Plus, it's decaf...so what's the point, right?

Caffeine Free update: Day 1

(Snoooooooooooore.)