Jesus & Genesis PURE....Really?

Driving home from Hays Kansas to Mulvane Kansas and reflecting on this crazy journey that has been my life and the craziness that God continues to provide.  It’s been a long time since I have posted to my blog and with some prodding it appears to be time to start posting again.

Kurt and I left Mulvane yesterday without any of our children in tow.  This is only the second night in our married life we have been away from home without any of them, the first one being our honeymoon three and a half years ago.  We were headed to Hays to hear Dr. Lindsey Duncan speak on wellness, life, and nutrition.  We enjoyed our time together in the car and stopped for a relaxing dinner in Salina before we met up with friends in Hays for some adult beverages and socializing.

It’s crazy to think we were without kids.  It’s crazy to realize that NEVER happens.  And it might be even crazier to think that we drove all that way for a gathering related to a direct marketing company.

 

We joined this company called Genesis PURE back in March.  I was looking for weight loss and energy products.  Because let’s face it, at 43 with fibromyalgia, osteo-arthritis, and a sketchy digestive system I was going to need all the help I could get to restart my (what seemed to be) halted metabolism.  I had spent the better part of the prior two years seeking answers, help, anything to feel better and all I was getting was fatter, grumpier, and more lethargic.  The fibro meds were making me tired and sweaty.  I was popping Tums like they were M&M’s and I had lost all energy and ability to hit the gym. 

Don’t get me wrong.  In the grand scheme of things, I had very little to complain about.  I have been blessed in ways that I struggle to find words to explain.  There was a time in my life when I would have told you I will never marry again because healthy marriages ended with my parents’ generation.  There was a time when I would have told you I will never work in a church because it is filled with politics and bullshit that Jesus never intended to be there.  And yet, here I am with this wonderful husband and beautifully woven church family that I am humbled and honored to serve.  Humans are messy.   I am among the messiest and I have found peace and grace among brokenness.  I have a list of gratitudes longer than there is space for, and I can honestly say that I have found spiritual and mental peace in ways that I never believed existed.

When it came to the medical issues I believed I was being forced to accept some kind of new normal.  If I could drop a few pounds, though……maybe it would not be QUITE so bad.  However, when I began to hear that there are supplements out there made entirely of the food God meant for us to eat and that people were experiencing miraculous results (Yes, MIRACULOUS) my mind raced at the thought “maybe this does not have to be normal”.  Kurt must have had similar ideas, because after some discussion we jumped in together the next day and haven’t looked back.  

With the new goal of getting off the meds I put weight loss and energy on the back burner with the belief that if I could feel better those things would come.  So, on March 16^th when our products arrived we began this seemingly crazy journey toward physical health as a family.  By the end of May I was off my fibro meds, my allergy meds, and all over the counter pain meds.  Today, I am back in a love/hate relationship with the treadmill, down ten pounds, and moving better than I have in TEN years (or more!).  I have energy to spare! 

Again, here I am in the midst of something I never believed I would do.  I’m not one to do direct marketing or commission only sales of any kind.  I have never had any desire to stock inventory, track orders, do home parties, makeovers, woo people with hostess gifts, or play cheesy games for discounts.  I returned to school for ministry almost three years ago and have diligently worked to fulfill this calling to serve Jesus by serving others.  Genesis PURE does not ask me to do anything that takes me away from that AND I don’t have to do any of the aforementioned list of silliness.

My heart is in helping others find their “sweet spot” in life.  You know, that place where you live, work, and serve within your strengths in such a way that you know that you know that you know you are the person you were created to be.  I’m sure you have heard it said “find something you love and figure out how to make a living at it.”  I feel like I live in my “sweet spot” and it’s an AMAZING place to be!  Not because I make a bunch of money (because I don’t), but because I am living within my calling and serving within my strengths.  We were each created in a way that is unique and with purpose and when you can find that, the fulfillment is overwhelming!  We are currently offering an opportunity to begin this journey through a class called Servant by Design at our church and it is by FAR my favorite part of my “job”.  It sounds so cliché and yet being the best YOU that you can be really facilitates fulfillment in all aspects of one’s life.  Relationships heal and become healthy, careers fall into place, and grace is experienced in ways that allow us to see God in very real and tangible ways.

Today as Dr. Lindsey spoke of “caring for this human frame”, he expressed that our bodies are not our own, that we should care for this temple we were given to live in.  He read from Genesis how God provided food for us and from 1 Corinthians about how we are to care for one another as well.  He encouraged us to spread the message of wellness with pure intentions and educated us on ways to cleanse, balance, and build our bodies.  He reminded us that healing comes from God, and that our bodies are created in such a way that they will heal when we fuel them properly.  As he spoke, I realized that in the last six months this cleansing, balancing, and building of my body, my temple, has been part of becoming the me God created me to be.  It’s part of living in that “sweet spot”.  I feel better than I have felt in well over ten years and it keeps getting better.  I am more capable of serving others now, than ever before.   

So, while I can imagine that some of my friends and family might think I have jumped off the deep end of crazy because I think you can carry a gun, marry the one you love, find life and love after divorce, get a tattoo, have an adult beverage, use food as medicine, and use the word bullshit in your blog, I can’t help but think of the radical, non-traditional way that Jesus taught us to love.  He lived WAY out of the box….talking to people He was not supposed to talk to, eating with people He was not supposed to eat with, touching people He was not supposed to touch, forgiving sins that the human system did not allow forgiveness for…..and all I can think is JUMP, BE CRAZY, BE RADICAL, BE OUT OF THE BOX.  Find new ways to live well, love better and stronger, and BE grace. 

I honestly don’t have a clue how it all fits together.  God has wild plans and outrageous ideas and my life continues to display it.  All I know is that God arrived as Jesus to save my soul by grace and He has blessed me with the gift of Genesis PURE to salvage what’s left of this body (this temple) that I have been given to walk this earth in. I am grateful, humbled, amazed, and continually compelled to share what He is doing in my life.