Well, here I am at day 1 or day 68, depending on how you look at it. I woke at 5:00 AM and drank about 32 oz. of water (pay attention, this will come into play later).
Physical
I then did my Fit Father Workout. I only climbed the program to level 4 and back down. Basically this is a ladder or apex program where you do certain exercises to a level and then back down to one. For instance, one push-up, one squat, one row, etc. Then 2 of each, then 3, then 4. At 4 you work your way back down. I only went to 4 because I didn’t want to do more damage to an already hurting shoulder. Regardless, it got my heart rate up and I felt good after.
Spiritual
After my workout I drank more water, see where this is going, and began with the daily readings followed by the Divine Office and Morning Prayer. One thing that really made an impression on me from the Office of Readings was St. Augustine’s letter to Proba. For me, it really helped answer the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” or at least “What do I do when it seems like God is ignoring my prayers!?” You can read it below if you wish.
You may still want to ask why the Apostle said: We do not know what it is right to pray for, because, surely, we cannot believe that either he or those to whom he wrote did not know the Lord’s Prayer.
He showed that he himself shared this uncertainty. Did he know what it was right to pray for when he was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to bruise him, so that he might not be puffed up by the greatness of what was revealed to him? Three times he asked the Lord to take it away from him, which showed that he did not know what he should ask for in prayer. At last, he heard the Lord’s answer, explaining why the prayer of so great a man was not granted, and why it was not expedient for it to be granted: My grace is sufficient for you, for power shines forth more perfectly in weakness.
In the kind of affliction, then, which can bring either good or ill, we do not know what it is right to pray for; yet, because it is difficult, troublesome and against the grain for us, weak as we are, we do what every human would do, we pray that it may be taken away from us. We owe, however, at least this much in our duty to God: if he does not take it away, we must not imagine that we are being forgotten by him but because of our loving endurance of evil, must await greater blessings in its place. In this way, power shines forth more perfectly in weakness. These words are written to prevent us from having too great an opinion of ourselves if our prayer is granted, when we are impatient in asking for something that it would be better not to receive; and to prevent us from being dejected, and distrustful of God’s mercy toward us, if our prayer is not granted, when we ask for something that would bring us greater affliction, or completely ruin us through the corrupting influence of prosperity. In these cases we do not know what is right to ask for in prayer.
Therefore, if something happens that we did not pray for, we must have no doubt at all that what God wants is more expedient than what we wanted ourselves. Our great Mediator gave us an example of this. After he had said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me, he immediately added, Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father, so transforming the human will that was his through his taking a human nature. As a consequence, and rightly so, through the obedience of one man the many are made righteous.
My water consumptions saves the day.
I helped Nicole fix breakfast for two of our boys who were heading to Rome today for a pilgrimage. I made a cup of coffee and walked to parent’s house to get my mom who is also going to Rome. I drove the three of them to the airport, said goodbye, and started back for home. However, I really had to use the restroom. After about twenty minutes of driving, I couldn’t hold it any longer and stopped at a gas station.
As I was getting back in my vehicle, something told me to check my phone. As you know from yesterday’s post, part of my program is keeping my phone on airplane mode except for two specific times during the day. I listened to my inner voice and took the phone out of airplane mode. There were voicemails and texts popping all over the place. One of my sons had lost his wallet and ID and was hoping it was in the vehicle. It was, I drove back to the airport. If I hadn’t had stopped, I would have returned home to learn that he wouldn’t be able to make his flight. The lesson, drink lots of liquids, it’s good for you and may help save someone from missing their flight!
Intellectual
I practiced my Spanish and did a full page of cursive A’s using my left hand. I was surprised at how much Spanish I remembered and that gave me a lot of confidence. The cursive was another story. It took me about 20 minutes to finish the page but I did get better and faster. I’m very anxious to see how the writing progresses over the course of the remainder of the year. Hopefully, by the end of this I’ll be able to write well with either hand or at least have fuller use of my left hand especially since my next project will be learning piano.
I also began my foray into the Summa of the Summa. It’s certainly gong to be an intellectual challenge. Kreeft is brilliant, I am not but thankfully he is a good teacher. Something I found interesting as I began the book is that the glossary is at the beginning. Kreeft suggests reading through it first and so I did. One particular word caught my eye in light of this self-improvement project:
Change: actualization of potency.
You and I have latent potency. We have an inherent capacity for growth. All of us, no matter our state or position in life have the ability to actualize that potency – change. This is fantastic news and it ties in well with what I am trying to accomplish with this “experiment”. The potential is there for all of us, we just need to make it happen!
Emotional
Emotional health consists of treating ourselves well, learning to deal with emotions correctly, and taking care of the other (above) three areas. Some positive things that brought me into a good emotional state today were 1) talking to my mom and boys on the way to the airport 2) seeing my granddaughter and her incredible smiles 3) staying off of screens 4) taking a walk with Nicole and the kids around our property and 5) dialoguing with Nicole about us, our relationship, and our future.
To sum it up, it was a great start to this 68 day experiment. I know all of the days won’t go as well and I’m trying to mentally prepare for that. How about you? Are you working on actualizing the potential in your life? Are you working to change who you are for the better? If so, let me know in the comments. It would be great to know that I’m not walking this path alone. Thanks for reading!
As promised, the Title and Featured Image are A.I. generated just for fun…this one features a young lady with some extremely long fingers and I have no idea what is going on with her feet/legs…
James M. Hahn, Author 