Much About Life, Work, Pleasing People and God and... the Tune of the Oldies

Its a beautiful thing to witness how music played from nearly 5 decades ago can put the most joyful smile on a sweet wrinkled veterans face. I have the utmost respect for the elderly who have to keep up with the fast paced speed of this crazy world that has literally changed before their very eyes. Its got to be a whirl wind for them. It is for me and I'm still a spring chicken, they would say. 

I work at a Christian Fitness Center (The Roc) where we have always payed Christian music in the gym on a regular basis. Not Gathers, not Gospel, but for the most part the music you would hear on K-Love. Its soft easy listening with an occasional heavy eat of Lecrae or Skillet. Sure we'll get complaints from the older generation in particular, "'Can you change the music?' 'This is making my hearing aids ring.' 'I feel like I'm going to fall asleep while I'm walking.'" We have a beautiful walking track in our gym that we offer to the public for free. So many love to come in on a day that is too hot or too cold to be outside and get their laps in. Sometimes they'll meet up with their friends at our ROC cafe and talk about Politics and Religion, you know the typical conversation you would hear taking place in a circle of white haired individuals having coffee. My favorites are the married couples that come in holding hands. It's so precious and such an accomplishment for them to have made it this far. Some come in single, without a spouse at all. There's always a story of why. Some we know of and some we question. Is it a nursing home, was it divorce or has the other one drifted into eternity early leaving their partner behind with only memories and pictures left? Sometimes it's the music that stimulates those very memories of a time when life was full of love, laughter and energy. 
 
Our fitness center is now in competition with another fitness center that has opened up across the hwy. With the ROC full of cutting edge equipment, a wholesome clean environment and a variety of amazing group Exercise and Silver Sneakers classes, what could we be up against? Well it so happens that this other center has a pool. And a pool is a wonderful thing for an elderly individual with sore joints or weak muscles. In fact people of all ages love a good workout in the water. I won't deny that it is a great way to move and work out all of your kinks without impact and wear on the joints, but it saddens me to see so many leaving us and choosing the other gym for that main reason. 

One day this past week, after another complaint about the "boring" music we play, I was tired of sticking to a rule that didn't seem to make sense. Seeing that the majority of our folks during this particular time of the day were over 70, I took it upon my self to bend the rules and slap on some 50s and 60s music!! My fearful coworker was trembling at the thoughts of us getting in trouble with the church we are in connection with. I told her don't worry about it,  I’m sure Jesus listens to oldies! On that very day it felt like the color of the gym went from dim to bright. People were hopping on the track and treadmills. So many were coming to the front desk with smiles on their faces and a big thumbs up as if to say Thank You! One came with a story emerged from one of the songs playing that reminded him of his Spouse. With tears in his eyes and a shaky voice he expressed how it was one of her favorite songs. She had passed years ago. He smiled as he began to talk to us about her, her personality and the fun times they used to have. We laughed with him as we listened to him tell this story with a special glow in his face, a glow that came from a song that stimulated a memory of the good 'ole days. 

My coworker and I joked about my decision and how risky it was. We roared in laughter about how many people seem overwhelmingly appreciative and happy with this small change made by the touch of a new, or shall I say old genre on Pandora. Maybe there is hope for us at this fitness center that is lacking a pool. People want to go to a place that makes them happy! 

Here comes the doom and gloom part of this, adding of a new genre onto our ROC Fitness Center's song play list.  I mentioned we are a "Christian" Fitness Center.  Does this mean we are not allowed to make people happy? Who ever said Christians should be the cause of people walking around stone faced and angry at the world and everything in it. I say a smile never hurt a flee. My title at work is, Director of Group Exercise programming, so it is my job to hire on certified instructors that fit our vision of providing a clean, fun, productive fitness class with also a word from the Lord and a Prayer for the day. The music in our 32 classes we offer is primarily Christian music. We take some popular secular classes such as Body Pump and Zumba etc., weed out the music that is tasteless and profane and replace it with songs written by great inspired Christian artists. It is these very songs that also speak to the hearts of the people as their blood is pumping and bodies are in action working towards their fitness goals.  This is what makes us different from other gyms. Your not going to have Miley Ray Cyrus swinging from wrecking balls, or Lady Gaga playing with whips and chains in our gym but You may hear the Supremes singing You Cant Hurry Love or even Jim Croce singing about Time in a Bottle. 

As expected, there was a complaint issued to the Pastor of the church that is in connection with our gym. A complaint directed towards the fact that we have been playing oldies music for a few hours out of the day, that peak of the day when the majority of gym attendees are over 70. The claim was made that this music does not belong in a church. I agree that on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night we are not going to worship the Lord to The Four Season's, Sherry Baby, but lets get real, this is a "Fitness Center". A Worship Center/ Church is essentially a building for worshipping and learning about God. A Christian Fitness Center is a blend of the opportunity to worship God in fusion with getting fit, a cleaner approach to the way secular gyms are run today in this sex crazed anti-christian society we live in. 

This complaint made me sad and gave me a heavy heart knowing that something that could make so many happy could make one person so angry and disgruntled. This torn feeling of mixed emotions is one of the most difficult things for me in my line of work. I will admit that I struggle with being a people pleaser. I was told this by a coworker and fellow instructor, as he struggles with the same thing. I read a devotional in one of my classes this week that talked about our call to please God not man. The Same goes for fear. Fear God, not man, but how do we know when it is God we are pleasing and not man? What voice is the right one to listen to.  I’m learning more about this each and every day in my Christian walk. Listening to the Spirit is so difficult sometimes. Especially when there is so much noise out there. So much talk about peoples opinions, preferences, ideas about what’s right and wrong and the Christian inclination to cling to the law. Second Corinthians 3:17 says,  Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty. I feel that there truly is the Spirit of the Lord in our fitness center. Ministry is happening in little ways. Not always visible in big ways but inevitably in the lives that are touched. The people that come to The Roc must feel loved if they're going to feel a touch by God at all. The Beetles said it best when they sang, All We Need is Love.  God is love and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom, freedom to love on these people in whatever way possible, even if it means bringing a smile to an elderly mans face because of a song that reminded him of the good 'ole days. 

I Now Drink My Coffee Black

I now drink my coffee black? What kind of a title is that? It means what it says but there is much more to be said and recorded onto this online bookshelf of blogged memories about a day in which I decided to get clean with my coffee sipping. So this page of musings revolves around the time that I took my determination to a whole new level and began to drink my coffee black.

It was July 1st, in the Summer of 2016 when I decided to give it another shot in the dark. Another? Yes I've quit the highly desired, beloved cream and sugar many times in the past, but never lasted more than a week or two. It's amazing how cravings never truly go away. They just get pushed back into the very depths of your mind where your hypothalamus, that part of your brain that loves to tell your body it has to have something when in fact it just likes to lie lie lie all the time, decides to sit back and let logic step in and say, "Why?" Why do you think you need it? Is it beneficial?  I had to learn to get past the lies and see the freedom in ignoring that darn craving and replacing it with something else.

Why was dropping this habit of cream and sugar so important to me, one may ask. Well those who know me know about my love for this popular high octane drink. I've even been known to have a slight hinge of disappointment after meeting someone new and thinking we could be great friends, then to find out  the discouraging news that they don't...drink...coffee...gasp. Sorry, this friendship would never work. I say this jokingly of course.

My fellow coffee drinking readers will relate when I say that it is this very drink, that comes from a tiny bean, that helps put a bounce in my first step out of bed in the morning encompassed by the excitement in knowing it's time for coffee and Jesus! I love mornings. I love to get up and have some time to talk to God and sip on my rich hot drink, before the little minions awake and the rat race begins. The only problem with this crazy habit I bestowed was the dairy and sugar that I also had been consistently consuming daily.

Prior to kicking my habit I had become aware of my need to cut back on my carb and sugar intake, creating a cleaner approach to eating. In the event of doing so I realized that I was not going to achieve a day without sugar if I indeed started my day with a spoonful of sugar. There are really two types of coffee drinkers; the ones who just have to have something in it; and the ones who drink it black and would never go back. Well I've been both of these people, obviously or I would have no credibility in writing about it. One thing that is so interesting and unexpected, is how I now crave it in its pure and natural flavor.. after extracted from the bean and mixed in water of course, but this is now my preferred way to drink it! After achieving this goal I am finding there are other things that I can go without. Things that I have had all my life but I am realizing I am better off without them. I feel better, I think better and everything tastes better. I'm not entirely gluten free but I'm seeking out ways to cook without it. Bread is a real treat but I find that I'm not craving it like I once did. It all had to start somewhere, and coffee was the first step so I'm reminded every single day, of the accomplishment of giving up something I thought to be impossible, as I begin it with a cup of black coffee and a whole lot of Jesus who really was the key to making it happen. I'm now presently on my third month of this clean drinking frenzy and I think I've created a habit in which there is no turning back. Even now after writing about it, I have set an accountability of online viewers that are sure to keep me on the black-coffee-drinking-bandwagon. Otherwise I just become a hypocrite of my own writing.

I share this blog not to brag about what may seem to some as a "silly trivial accomplishment," but in hopes that it may help someone struggling with a food addiction of any kind. It all starts with the first step and the determination and will power to do it. If you don't believe you are strong enough then that's where the power of God steps in and fills in the gaps. He is the cream and sugar in my coffee every morning and it's never tasted better!