My Story & Why You Need to Read This...

My Story

As the old hymn says, "this is my story..."

I was living my dream.

I was inspiring young lives as a youth pastor.

There were Monday meetings at a local coffeeshop with excessively large cups of sugar filled coffee and even larger blueberry muffins warmed with butter dripping off.  There were Wednesday night bible study with sugar cookies.  Afternoon mentoring meetings with students over several McD's large sweet teas.  Thursday night youth group with a full stocked candy shop and my  pre-sermon Slim Jim that I would snap into.  Throw in special events with pizza and convention weekends with sugary snacks and eating out every meal. And I have not mentioned the 100's of hot dogs consumed at every community or church outreach ever hosted.

All in the name of being God's servant to the youth of that community.  I was sacrificing for the gospel and what was being laid on the alter was my health.

In a sense, ministry was killing me.  Okay, not specifically the ministry. I take responsibility for the poor food choices I made.  But the environment I existed in was causing a slow painful death to every article of clothing hanging in my closet.  My waistlines were gasping for air with every pizza party! The buttons on my button ups were beginning to cry for mercy. Super hip skinny jeans were a non negotiable when you have too much hip and and not enough skinny.

The Day God Spoke in an Animated Voice

Leadership is a dangerous environment.  Church leadership seemingly even more so.  A recent study showed 76% of all Evangelical pastors are overweight or obese.    Sure I was chubby, a little overweight but never in my mind did I see myself as obese.

Until that day...

I stepped foot for the very first time onto a Wii Fit board.  For starters there is this annoying beeping sound as it resembles an alarm clock while it "prepares to measure" you.  Then once it has scanned you like a TSA security screening it takes your skinny "Mii" character and inflates it like a helium balloon.  That day I thought my animated Mii was going to float right off the screen as these insulting words in the kindest animated voice screamed at me "that's obese."  I had just became part of the 76%.

That became my wake up call, coupled with the fact I had recently learned of my dad acquiring Type II Diabetes, a completely preventable disease.  I was determined to no longer be insulted by that animated voice.  I was determined for that voice to call me healthy!

The Outsider

At that same point we were transitioning ministry positions.  We moved from a larger church to smaller family style church.  Similar to the one reference in my blog "The Lie the Church Told Me".  Transitioning from a Slim Jim inspired, sweet tea drinking youth pastor to a leader who was testing the waters of tilapia and broccoli I became an outsider.

The funny looks when you pass on Sunday morning donuts.  The odd stares when your church fellowship plate has more veggies than desserts on it.  When you show up to an impromptu meeting still smelling like the 2 mile run you just finished, you get that odd look.  Suddenly, one of these things does not look like the other.

It was like becoming an outsider.   As a leader I have walked a mile in your shoes.  Then I ran a mile in those shoes, then 2 miles in those shoes, then 3 miles in those cool sneaks!  Then I put on a different pair of kicks and went crazy with Insanity.  And in that process I found something, I didn't have to be part of the 76%.  I was becoming part of the 24%.

It Costs

As leaders we have to do better.  Here is my challenge to whether your are in church leadership or in position of leadership in the marketplace, just start!   Leaders love to look at bottom lines, so here is what it is costing you "being 15 to 45 pounds overweight can cost you $500 per year. Being 50 or more pounds overweight can cost you up to $5000."

This became my reality when we signed up life insurance.  While at the my largest weight when we signed up I was considered a "high risk insurer" due to two major factors one my weight being over a 30 BMI and to my profession as a pastor.  It was a high premium based on the fact of those contributing factors I was more likely to die sooner in the eyes of the life insurance company.

Two years later, after several hundred miles in the sneaks, a sweet tea detox and lots of sweat when we change life insurance companies I was no longer a "high risk insurer".

It is going to cost you to get healthy - cost you time, energy, money.  But they return is valuable.  The return is life. The return is greater energy. The return is greater creativity.  The return is some very practical way is that in the long run that cost will save your life and you money.

 What is your story?  I would love to hear it.  Post it in the comments below.