Archive for the 'Health' Category

Beach visitation…

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 10 May 2009
in Health and My Life
. 1 Comment

This morning I woke up before the family and set out for some morning exercise and take a jog. Don’t take this as some sort of morning ritual because I have honestly neglected my temple for about a year now but it is time to do some maintenance. So I set out heading north on A1A and ran a little more than a mile. Then I opted for the beach for my return trip.

God speaks to people in all sorts of ways but for me it is often through the imagery of the things around me. As I making my return walk on the beach this was the encouraging word that God gave me. First let me give you the setting. Its 7:45am on a fairly unoccupied (at least this time of day) section of beach in Boca Raton, FL. It is beginning to heat up but the ocean breeze keeps the temperature just right for the cool down walk home. Continue reading ‘Beach visitation…’

The autopsy of a church planter

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 30 April 2009
in Church Planting, Church of God, City of Weston Florida, Health, InDependence Church, My Life, My Wife, Parenting, Random Ramblings and The Word
. 7 Comments

Somebody asked me yesterday what it was like to not have to prepare for Sunday. Well I wrote this blog a while back titled 6 days till Sunday which has been the story of my life for the past 16 months straight. Even though I recently have switched over to Facebook to spout off random thoughts, this blog still remains the behind the scenes look at the life of a husband, father, and church planter. I just have been busy with the stuff below and haven’t had time to blog much. (And outsourcing my blog didn’t work)

 

So I wanted to journal my thoughts as I close the chapter of my life at InDependence Church. As many of you know this past Sunday was my last official Sunday at InDependence. Over the next week or so I will be working on transferring over all of the other “stuff” that goes along with this job like, banking, taxes, facilities, marketing, leadership, staff info, etc. etc. etc.

 

Many of my pastoral friends have called to check up on me to see how I am doing. My wife asked me yesterday if it feels to me like we are offering our kid up for adoption after you have brought it into this world and raised it for two years… In a sense yes but God has given me incredible peace and confidence that I am doing what is best for me, my family and InDependence.

 

To not so quickly recap:

Continue reading ‘The autopsy of a church planter’

21PF

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 15 January 2009
in Health, My Life and The Word
. 0 Comments

21 Days PF (Post Fast) - 144.2lbs -Some of you have asked for a little bit of an update on where I am at in relationship to my 40 day fast so here goes. I have kind of held off writing it because I want to be really positive but as you will see below there is some precedence for the pattern I am on…

I find myself once again proving the patterns of the Bible to be accurate. “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he (Jesus) was hungry. The tempter came to him…” As many of you know I just came off a 40 day fast and to be honest I expected the big temptations and tests to come during the fast I should have looked to Word of God to see how it went down for Jesus. 

The enemy really hasn’t changed his tactics in large part because they are still pretty effective. We are still looking at the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life. So here I am some 21 days after my fast and facing some of these “heart” issues. Satan hasn’t asked me to jump off any cliffs or anything but in a sense I feel the challenge to “let go”.

 

I have always been a control freak and a “doer”. But today I find myself in positions where there is nothing to do. For me that is tough so, just as talked about in our InVest Group last night, “God I present me (just me) to you. I want to abandon all of the things that I have made a part of my identity. Eliminate the things that may be a part of me that I have picked up through the years that are not a part of who You made me to be.  I want to learn to operate solely in the identity You gave me.”

How to lose 30+lbs in 40 Days

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 24 December 2008
in Church Planting, City of Weston Florida, Health, InDependence Church and My Life
. 18 Comments

This is my personal daily log of my 40 day fasting experience. I tried to keep them brief because I really want you to read through the progression. I didn’t go into the really spiritual side because I have some personal stuff there that I just didn’t feel led to share. So I focused mainly on the physical because I want you to know that it is physically possible. This is something that you can do WHEN GOD LEADS YOU TO. (Emphasis added again and again and again).

Not everybody is called to a 40 day fast but we are all called to fast. It is good for the spirit, the mind and the body. If I didn’t think it would be creepy I had considered doing a photo journal as well but with a thin 5′-8″ frame to start, it is easy to imagine the progression. So enjoy reading about the last 40 Days of my life as I have set out to give Jesus the gift of me for His birthday.

(As a continuation to the follow-up I have posted comments for a couple of days to give you the aftermath)

Day 1 - 157.0 lbs- Headache from 2:00 throught the remainder of the day. Probably due to the types of food I have been eating and the amount of caffeine I have been drinking. In hindsight I should have cut out caffeine and sugar a while ago and making a chocolate chip cookie the last thing I ate… not brilliant.

Day 2 - 155.2 lbs - Beginning of mental attack. Why am I doing this? What is the purpose? Will it really change anything?

Day 3 - 152.7 lbs - Slight stiffness and soreness throughout my body. Some is usual given the set-up and tear down at church but a lot more than usual today. Lusted over my sons breakfast today. Remembering from my previous 30 day fast getting past the first 3-4 days is the biggest challenge so I am gutting it out.

Day 4 - 150.8 lbs - Today I am feeling my first real hunger pains. I also am having a little bit of “laziness” in my muscles, specifically my legs. I feel like God dropped another purpose to fast in my spirit. I was taking part in the 40 days with our church but this season may take a more personal direction.

Day 5 - 149.2 lbs. - Really sluggish start to the day but the brisk motorcycle ride in today really got the blood flowing. Yesterday was a company lunch which is always really good. I don’t feel the physical need to eat as strong as the mental need to eat. Sounds strange but frankly I like to eat more than I need to eat.

Day 6 - 148.8lbs - I am glad the weight loss slowed down a little today. Today I feel the best that I have felt so far. Company birthday breakfasts two days in a row… you have got to be kidding me! Struggling a little to force myself to drink enough water to stay hydrated. Simply tired of the taste and going pee all the time. I know that it will make the difference between my success and failure so I had better get used to it.

Day 7 - 147.2lbs - Today has been the best morning yet. Very little uncomfortableness or sluggishness. I feel like my mind is clear and can really focus on the purpose of this fast. If I remember from my 30 day there is potentially another rough patch at +/-20 days but we’ll see. For now I am excited to be on this spiritual journey as God strengthens me in this process of beating this earthly flesh into submission.

As a side note: Sneezing with an empty stomach is pretty painful.

Day 8 - 146.4lbs - This fast is forcing me to get some more rest which is good.

Day 9 - 145.8lbs - Found myself easily winded at set-up today. Operated for most of the day on pure adrenalin. With that said I believe it was one of the best Sunday’s we have had in a while. I confirmed it with my wife because I couldn’t believe how focused I was during message delivery. By evening I was cooked but my favorite TV show helped me wind down: 24 Redemption. In reality I didn’t need any help winding down, I was pooped.

Day 10 - 143.6lbs - This is the second biggest weight loss day right behind last Sunday. This has me a little concerned because we are headed into the holidays and some of our college student help will be leaving which almost guarantees me a spot on the set-up team. I had anticipated losing 20-25lbs and I am already at 13 lbs just one quarter of the way through. Continue reading ‘How to lose 30+lbs in 40 Days’

BMI

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 18 July 2008
in Health and My Life
. 0 Comments

The Griffis family is moving… and one of the upsides to our new apartment is that it comes with a gym. I haven’t had much time for the gym lately (shame on me) and to conserve some cash my wife cancelled our YMCA membership 5 months ago. So I have done a little running but for the most part have done little to no exercise in the past 9 months.   I love to exercise and when I am in routine (every day) I am dedicated but when I am not in a routine I won’t do anything. So I noticed some added pounds joining my mid section in the last couple of months and have been trying to motivate my appetite for exercise instead of food.  I was thinking how great it would be to have 24 hr access to a gym so that I can use my crazy sleep habits to my advantage, but then I came across this article. Apparently I have 46lbs between me and obesity so what’s the rush. This scale must have slid quite a ways recently because I remember a much smaller number for my 5’9” frame. I wonder what the percentages on the map would be if we were working off the old scale. 

Never mind I went here and found out that I am only 13lbs from overweight so I am re-motivated. New apartment gym and racquetball court here I come…

I know BMI isn’t the most efficient way to analyze your health because a whole lot of professional athletes are considered overweight because of their muscle mass. But for me muscle mass isn’t the issue so now I just need to figure out which 30 - 45 minutes I need to dedicate.

To gross not to share

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 6 May 2008
in Health and Random Ramblings
. 0 Comments

Last week I gave you “Too funny not to share” but as a prelude to our next series The Ultimate Fighter starting on Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to share this. Don’t worry this won’t be in our intro video… justwalkitoffsissy.wmv

Test Drive Service #1 (10.21.07)

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 21 October 2007
in Church of God, City of Weston Florida, Health, InDependence Church, My Life, My Wife and Random Ramblings
. 4 Comments

Exhilaration, joy, pain, peace, anxiety, humbled, proud, fulfilled, desiring, exhausted, pumped… so many emotions…so little energy to process it. I know that it has been a while since I blogged and I would apologize but I was working diligently toward today and it paid off HUGE! I will get to that in a moment but some of those emotions I need to layout really quick for my own posterity.

I am exhilarated because it’s here! The day that we have been looking toward since early December of last year and planning for the past six months. I am als exhilarated because it is over. What an incredible amount of effort - mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually but it was SO worth it. (Don’t worry I’ll get to that!)

I have joy because we experienced victory today. Victory over the people that doubted, including myself at times. We had victory over the enemy that has been diligent in his efforts to keep us from this day. I have pain because I almost ripped my thumb nail off on a section of stage and sliced my fingers on a cart. That just means we had blood, sweat and tears. But it was worth every drop of each.

I have peace because I know that even though we couldn’t do everything, I know that we did all that we could do and brought glory to God’s name. I believe that we did Him proud today and really nothing else matters. I have anxiety because the day went amazingly smooth but I know we have to do it again. Not only do it again but I want to do it better.

I am humbled because God chose me to experience all of these emotions. I am humbled by the fact that God chose me to perform one of the most important roles in His earthly kingdom. I am proud of the effort that our volunteers put in and the spirit of excellence with which they did it. We turned Sagemont School into a great place to do church. The pictures taht are attached later don’t begin to do it justice.

I am fulfilled because we had a GREAT response with a lot of positive feedback our first time out of the trailer (box). I desire to accomplish so much more, to reach so many more, and to infect Weston with the love of Christ.

I am exhausted because there was an insane effort involved to pull it off. I am pumped because God met every need with volunteers to share the load at just the right time. We walked by faith, did all that we could do and as one of our core values states, we prayed like it depended on God and worked like it depended on us. In the end, as He always does, God came through BIG.

I know that everybody is expecting me to rattle off some statistics from our first service and tell you how many people were there, how we did in the offering, etc. Well to be honest God and I had a little conversation about that last night because I was pretty wrapped up in some of those things. I have some pretty good intentions because numbers have some value. Church is a business (one of the most important businesses in the world) that takes people and finances to operate. Without people, volunteers, staff to help carry out the vision, there really is no vision. Without the finances to do outreach, to market, to pay rent, etc. your ministry is dead in the water. God reminded me that there really is only one number that matters… that is the number that we increase heaven by.

I wish that I could say that we helped somebody become a Christ follower today, but I can’t. What I can tell you is that I think God is sending the right people so that I won’t have to give a 0 number every week. God is up to crazy stuff and I am just so in love with Him that I am sick. You know how you feel when you want to be with a person so bad that you just hurt. I know it could be the lack of sleep or the fact that we have been living on pizza, but that is not it. I just want to give you on example of God’s choreography from this past week…

I blogged a while back that I was going back to work to make some ends meet. So I found an Architectural Firm in Boca that hired me and I actually started this last Monday. Financially I needed to start last Monday even though I really would have liked to wait until next week. Here’s God’s plan: So because they are using a different CADD (Computer Aided Drafting & Design) program then I was using they wanted to send me to a refresher course. So Monday through Wednesday I was in this class and discovered that my instructor lived in Weston. So I intended to wait until Wednesday to give him an invitation to our Test Drive.

At lunch on Wednesday he brought up church and God allowed an open door to tell him while I was really here. He seemed interested but I wasn’t going to be too pushy. After lunch I gave him the invite and at the end of class the subject of our weekend schedule came up. I was telling about Church on Wheels coming Saturday and the training to set up and tear down. Out of the blue he says, what time are you starting and I can bring my son and we will help you. I did a little happy dance on the inside because I knew that five members of my team were not going to be able to make it.

So long story short… they came, worked like dogs all day, go home and invite all of their neighbors who are some wonderful people that seem extremely interested in doing ministry with us in Weston and were excited that we were starting this church. One family was so excited they took probably 100 invitations and is going to door hang her entire neighborhood. Can I get a YEAH GOD!

Can I tell you that I was discouraged to have to go work a secular job? In one sense I felt like a church planting failure because we couldn’t get started fast enough to enable me to maintain a salary and financially I had placed my family in a challenging position. I have always found that providing well for my family has been very important to me so to have to tell my wife that the end of the rope is very close and need this job otherwise…was incredibly painful for my ego. Even though my humanity hurt my spirit was incredibly calm. To be honest my wife and I actually laughed. This was just one more near calamity to add to the list and we knew that God would get glory we just were unsure at what expense.

So we made up our minds that whatever the cost… and as always God gets the glory. I think there will be much more to this story later and I can’t wait for the next turn to see how God is going to use this chain of events to lead to even greater things.

I know this blog was a book but I would love to tell you more because God is just that awesome and today God blew me away! If I didn’t have to get up and go to work… I have put in some pictures of what InDependence sanctuary looks like.
InDependence1
InDependence2
InDependence3

By the way for any church planters out there who read this let me just tell you to do preview services a month apart because I can’t imagine trying to do this again next week…

Healthy Discipline

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 16 July 2007
in Health
. 2 Comments

Physical, Spiritual and even Mental health has so much to do with discipline. I have always been a sucker for a good martial art movie. I am not talking about a Van Damme (the splits thing is impressive) or Karate Kid movie but one where you know these people did some real “ninja” type training. During those movies when they show the training process a majority of it is spent in disciplining the mind, body and spirit to bring their bodies under complete control. I know I just touched on this the other day but this has been solidly on my heart for a couple of months.

Since moving to Weston, disciplining myself to exercise 5 days a week has made my body more physically healthy. I am working on disciplining my body to eat better as well but that is a tougher for me than exercise. Mentally I have been reading more books which are a great way to exercise your mind. I wish that I was disciplined enough in time management to be able to read more, but I am trying.

Spiritually I have spent more time in the word and prayer than at any other time in my life. Even though it could easily be argued that it is still not enough, I have made some huge gains. This morning I didn’t read my Bible at the YMCA as I usually do. God didn’t need to convict me because I had already placed myself under conviction before I had left the parking lot. For the first time I felt myself missing my time with God in His word. I know that is a sad statement but I have never been consistent enough in the discipline of reading the Bible to miss it. I’ve missed friends, family, even a good television show, but not my Bible. To be completely honest, even though it felt terrible I am so excited to have this longing. I feel that I have a clearer understanding of Spiritual Health. I have always needed God but prior to today I didn’t understand just how much. To know that I had missed that time, that appointment, made me almost physically ill.

I believe God honors the surrender of self and acts of self discipline. This is why he challenges us to fast. It is a way of putting our body under submission. Before I started the whole ministerial credentialing process 9 years ago I went through a lot of deliberation with God. I needed to know for sure that this is what He wanted me to do and that it wasn’t just something I felt pressured into doing out of guilt or some other emotion. During this deliberation I went on a 30 day fast from all food. So for 30 days I only drank water and for the last 15 or so days I added some lemon juice to my water because I couldn’t stand the taste of straight water. I know…I didn’t think water had a taste either but after two weeks it isn’t a very pleasant one. I had heard many people talk of the amazing revelation that they had received during long periods of fasting. For me there wasn’t any huge revelation, I didn’t see any angels in a dream or any such thing. I mainly dreamed about cheeseburgers. Just kidding! In all honesty I had some pretty big expectations of what would happen. At the end I walked away with the direction I had asked for.

The time that I have spent lately with God in prayer, reading, meditating and fasting has been for a different purpose. I didn’t ask one specific question or want revelation on a particular topic. I have set my mind on achieving a closer relationship with Him. Just as He responded during my time of fasting He is showing up more and more in my life everyday that I seek Him. I want now, more than ever, to be increasingly desperate for His time. Not because I know that without Him this career choice of Church Planter will be a flop, but because I know now that I will miss Him if I don’t take the time to spend with Him.

I have some free time over lunch before a meeting about some donuts so I am going to go read my Bible. I challenge you to pick up yours today, maybe blow off the dust, and read it. There is Spiritual Health and even some guidelines for Physical and Mental Health inside.

Mission Slimpossible

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 21 June 2007
in Health
. 0 Comments

I have been in the process of giving my body its 30 year tune-up. I have never been what you would call a skinny guy but there have been times in my life that I have been in pretty good shape. Dieting has only been a part of my vocabulary twice in my life and that was mainly to support other individuals as they dieted. Not that I couldn’t afford to lose a few pounds along the way myself. I have always loved exercise especially weight training. The only problem has been that I have been very sporadic in the weight room.

Throughout high school I was dedicated and worked out once and sometimes twice a day 6 days a week. I had goals to compensate for my height, 5′-9″, at the strong safety position. By the time I graduated I weighed 185 lbs and was in pretty good shape. A dirt biking accident took me out of the gym for two years. Being that I was still young the “Seefood” diet was still working for me and I stayed in decent shape. For the next ten years I would train for a year and then get busy doing other things for a year but because I was active my weight stayed pretty consistent.

Then this weird thing happened…I turned 30! I was busy with life, preparing for this transition, figuring out how to raise a little boy, etc. I didn’t have a consistent work out partner and so I had no consistency either. My weight stayed around 165-175lbs. but other things were no longer staying in their same place.

So I made up my mind that with this transition in careers I needed to make some transitions in health. I had to discipline myself to exercise not only my body, but my mind and spirit man as well. So once we moved I began running in my neighborhood every morning. I would run 2 miles and then spend 30-45 minutes studying my Bible at our community pool. This combined with some minor eating adjustments (really due to the diet my son was on) has brought my weight down to 156 lbs. I recently gave up running in my neighborhood and joined the local YMCA. I am now able to run, weight train, and yes still read my Bible. When people see me reading my Bible in the lobby sometimes they look at me funny, but I accomplished something if they just look at me. I want to be a Godly representative in my community.

There were two things that triggered these thoughts today. A while back I was reading Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer and he quoted a conversation with Leonard Sweet. Leonard explained to Ed that recent studies show that nine of ten people who are told by doctors to “change or die” cannot do so. In other words, they are told by doctors to stop smoking, lose weight, or quit drinking in order to survive, and nine of ten die rather than change. That statement really bothered me. The other factor for these thoughts today are based on a show I got sucked into on TLC last night called “Honey We’re Killing the Kids “. Last nights episode was about the following family: With a combined weight of 540 pounds, the Hildebrand parents struggle with their own health. Although their kids already suffer from their lifestyle choices, mom and dad don’t know how to prevent the boys from heading down the same dangerous path.

It was amazing! They motivated the parents by computer generating pictures of their two boys, based on their current lifestyle, aging until the age of 40. Talk about a crushing blow especially when the dietician asked if they wanted to see their boys at 50 years of age and the dietician said she couldn’t because she doesn’t project them living past 45. The parents desperately struggled to make changes but at times the knowledge that they were killing their children was not motivation enough. Ultimately the family made some new habits including a better diet, less television, more physical activity, more family time and more parents alone time. At the end of the show they fast forward a month after the three week challenge and you get to hear the testimony of what the changes accomplished for their family.

So this family is on the right track which means that there are 36 people, according to the statistics above that will not be able to make the change. Prior to these two influences I was motivated in large part for myself. (That whole looking good with my shirt off thing) In the back of my mind I put forth some effort because I want to enjoy my grandchildren. This show has given me a new perspective on health. I want to be healthy for me but I now see that being healthy is more about my legacy.

It goes without saying that we should model ethics, morals, treating others with respect, loving our neighbors, reading the Bible, etc. We link the success of our legacy on those factors, but today I want to challenge you to make good health a more important part.

“Didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please; squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 The Message)