Here I Go Again

‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north. – Deuteronomy 2:3

When I was in college I was huge 80’s hair band fan and especially liked a band called White Snake. One of their songs was called, “Here I Go Again,” and the lyrics said, “Here I go again on my own.” The thoughts of that song combined with today’s verse, perfectly explained why I’ve circled the mountain of health and fitness for so long. I have repeatedly tried to do it on my own.

Earlier this year I began rehearsing a series of new excuses and resigned that at my age I just needed to make peace with my body and accept it as is. I work a sedentary job and with the convenience of working from home, the pantry is just a few steps away. I let myself believe that a few crackers and piece of cheese was a good lunch, but didn’t notice that a few crackers became a few handfuls.

I truly enjoy exercising and look forward to a walk or run. Unfortunately my focus was only on why that effort wasn’t seeing results. Of course the reason was that the calories burned while exercising was quickly replaced with the M&M’s and ice cream that I ate, justifying that I deserved them after a long stressful day at work.

I ate for all the classic wrong reasons. The food tasted good. I was sad. I was celebrating. I was tired and needed the energy. I was stressed and or emotional. Talk about circling the mountain! Round and round again.

But then God invited me to join Him for a Royal Make Over. Thoughts of Queen Esther and her year long beauty treatments crossed my mind and I thought about how wonderful it would be to be pampered every day for a year! But this Royal Make Over was going to be far more than changing my physical appearance, it needed to go much deeper. It need to go where God looks, the heart.

God’s message to me was, “Launa, you have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn North.” On a compass North is upward and that’s exactly where God was leading me, upward, to Him. It was time to stop attempting this with only my own efforts. It was time to get my True North and begin again with the One who will lead me to the Promised Land. It’s time to discover all that a Royal Make Over entails and it’s going to be so much more than I expected.

God is giving me the opportunity to share this journey with you and I pray that if you’ve also been circling a mountain that you will find this helpful to begin your own adventure with God to Your own land of promise.